


Monster Rancher Evo re-written

by Muted_Red



Category: Monster Rancher
Genre: Action/Adventure, Circus, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Monsters, Multi, Mystery, Orcoro Circus, Performance Art, Please read it's not as bad as you think the original game was, Travel, Video Game, circus performer, re-written
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 58,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muted_Red/pseuds/Muted_Red
Summary: Monster Rancher Evo, is often seen as one of the worst Monster Rancher games, but if it was given a deeper lead character the story would have been better to play through and to hear about. A certain runaway princess is a much better character to help make this story more interesting.  Also let's fix all those translation errors, except for the one that is the funniest of course.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

The entire small town of Colno had come to see the Orcoro circus perform, they cheered at the several monster themed tricks being performed, from Marlene and her monster named Rygar, a blue horned wolf , whom she directed to leap through several flaming loops which it did so with ease, Gaufre and his Ripper named Spork,  
a large monster slightly skunk like in shape rather it’s colors are white and pink and it stands on its hind legs with blades hidden under its arms which it used to slash away at a large block of ice Rygar had created, when he finished the large block of ice resemble a large and elaborate butterfly with wing patterns cut into the ice. 

Finally the last performer stepped onto stage after the ring leader Albert announced the next act, Julio and his Mocchi, a pink and green monster looking like an armadillo with a duck like beak, the Mocchi picked up a few small multi colored balls as Julio began to nervously play his accordion, the Mocchi managed to juggle three balls before they all toppled down onto his head, the audience gasped, the Mocchi began once more trying to juggle but it just couldn’t manage to juggle more than three balls at a time. The audience had slowly begun to boo Julio and his Monster as Julio tried to save his performance with his accordion playing, but it was helpless. 

Marlene quickly lit the flaming rings around the stage again, she turned to her monster and quickly sat on his back directing him to jump through the flaming rings while she was on his back. Rygar hesitated, before he ran onto the stage, leaping through the rings as Marlene ducked under them doing her best not to set her hair on fire. Marlene’s distraction was enough to allow Julio and his Mocchi to run off stage. Once they finished their routine was finished Marlene and Rygar rode back off stage and Albert ran on to close out the show. 

Marlene and her monster took a moment to rest near the wall as Gaufre comforted Julio across the room from her, Julio stood up and tearfully ran off to his room deep in the tent. After a moment Albert ran into the backstage area, taking off the phantom of the opera-esc clown mask he commonly wore, as he knelt next to Marlene as she poured water on the singed parts of her hair. 

“Marlene are you ok? That was an incredibly risky move stun pulled back there.” Albert whispered calmly as petting Rygar who had laid down in front of him.

“ I’m fine, just a bit of burnt hair no big deal.” Marlene stated calmly “ You should go check on Julio, he’s pretty shaken up by what happened out there.”

Albert nodded as he stood and jogged away to go check on Julio, Marlene watched him leave before she gave a loud sigh, “Well this Circus certainly hasn’t been normal since that kid joined us that’s for sure.”


	2. The Village of Colno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story begins

Marlene had slept in late that day, she hadn’t even gotten out of her everyday and performance clothes, she walked to her mirror tied her hair into a bun like she always did before leaving her room for the weekly meeting the circus held. She walked into the room yawning loudly.

“ Good morning everyone. Can I just say I sleep so well the day after a show.” Marlene cheerfully announced to the group.

“Marlene, it’s already noon.” Gaufre whispered to her “ Besides we have other problems.”

Marlene looked over at Julio who was sat in a ball in the chair he usually sat in for the meetings. Albert was talking to him calmly trying to get his spirits up.  
“What happened Gaufre?” Marlene questioned looking up at him, it always caught her off guard how tall he was compared to her even at 5’8” He still towered over her at 7’4” and the giant helmet-like mask he wore made him even more off putting when looking up at him.

“ Mocchi ran away last night.” Gaufre stated sadly “ Julio found out this morning he’s been sulking in his chair since.”

Marlene gasped “ Oh that’s awful, I feel bad for both of them, you know Julio hasn’t been able to raise a monster all that well since he joined us, and a monster doesn’t run off like that unless…” 

Albert interrupted her “ Unless a monster doesn’t have too much time left to live, Mocchi must have run away so we wouldn’t have to see his last moments on earth.”

Julio gave a shaky sigh “ I shouldn’t have pushed him to perform last night, It’s all my fault.”

Albert had started to retort but a voice from the entrance to the room interrupted him. “ Wow this place feels so down, kinda gloomy, you’d never know there was a circus here last night.” A girl happily called 

The group turned to see a girl standing in the entrance to the tent, She had brown hair tied into a ponytail, her eyes were two different colors and she wore what looked to be a kimono.

“ Who the heck are you?” Marlene yelled looking at the girl who had just barged into their tent. 

“ Oh I’m Nayuta, My favorite food is candy, and I’m great at magic I guess.” She happily responded, before anyone could react she continued talking “ No then does anyone have a disk around here, I’d love to show off a little bit.”

Albert complied hesitantly handing her the grey plate that they called a disk. She nodded to say thank you before closing her eyes and placing the disk on the floor, a light shone from her forehead and the two tambourines she pulled out from her bag did so as well, a butterfly flew out from the disk, it swirled around her before landing on the disk again an the disk seemed to fade into the ground as a monster appeared in its place. The monster was blue and white, it’s white circular head made an opening for two green glowing eyes, and two horns sprouted from the back of it’s head, It’s short tube like body ended with two tiny nubs for feet, it’s arms were flat much like the blue cape on its back

“That’s a Piroro.” Albert stated in shock “ How did you do that? I thought you needed to use a shrine to release monsters from a disk like that.”

Nayuta smiled happily “ Well my people use the energy in all living people called anima, we learned how to use that as magic and interact with monsters.” She made a little tada motion with her hands “ Now that you’ve seen what I can do, will you let me join you guys, I can be pretty helpful the have around.” 

“ Now hold on a moment, you just waltz in here and just expect us to let you join us, you’ve got some nerve.” Marlene said angrily, folding her arms

“ Well she is right Marlene, we could use someone like her on our team, plus Julio kinda did the same thing and we let him join us.” 

Marlene sighed “ Ok as long as she puts in actual work and not just magically summoning a monster every so often.” 

Nayuta’s grin grew even wider “ Yay, I won’t let you down.” She looked down at the monster she had just summoned. “ Now then why doesn’t mr. Pointy over there should take care of this monster? I’ve named them Mystery already by the way”

Julio looked a bit shocked “ Mr… Pointy??” He took a moment to let that nickname sink in “ Besides that, are you sure I’m not the best person to raise a monster.” 

Nayuta chuckled “ Then why do you have a Tochikan instrument over there?” Everyone looked at her confused. “ The accordion, it’s a special instrument, it lets you connect and sort of talk to a monster, here I’ll demonstrate.” 

She grabbed her tambourines once again, she played them in a short rhythm, Mystery turned to look at her before they danced to the beat of her music happily, ending by doing a handstand as she changed the tune.

The rest of the group looked at them in a bit of an awe, “ Wow who knew my accordion could do something like that.” Julio looked down at his accordion excitedly. 

Albert took a moment to think before announcing “ I’ll go take Mystery to the monster’s quarters and then we can start our meeting ok?” He held out his arm and Mystery flew up onto his arm and sat there happily as the two walked off to the monster’s quarters of the tent. 

They waited for a few minutes for Albert to return, the meeting was pretty boring like it always was, they went over their plan for the next few weeks and were all dismissed to do their training with the schedule they had planned for the week, 

Marlene sat on their practice stage brushing Rygar’s fur which had gotten pretty messy since their performance the night before. She had sent Julio and Nayuta off to get her some food so she could have a nice lunch and treat herself since she did almost light her hair on fire, She waited for three hours and the two still hadn’t come back, she looked up at Gaufre who had just finished training Spork for the day.

“Hey Gaufre do you mind training with Rygar for a second? I’m gonna ask Albert if he can make me some food.” Marlene called, as she walked over to Gaufre with Rygar. 

“ No problem Marlene, it’s sad those two have been running around town all day and still haven’t come back.” Gaufre responded calmly.

“It’s fine, they’re kids, we can’t control them all the time.” Marlene said before she jogged off to talk to Albert. 

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly, Marlene finally got that cake she had asked for, she let Julio keep the change he needed at least one win this week, other then that nothing notable happened until that sunday, the troupe had been gathered in the meeting room.

Albert stood next to a man around his height, he wore a red coat and brown pants, his outfit looked rather similar to what Julio usually wore. The man smiled at all of them as they went into the meeting room of the tent. 

“Sorry for calling you all in here so late but Mayor Morgan has a request for us.” Albert motioned to the man next to him who awkwardly smiled at the troupe.

“ As you know my name is Mayor Morgan, I saw how a few of you were able to command your monsters, and we have a problem with a beast that the locals nicknamed the “Devil of the forest” it's been destroying our crops which has been causing problems for our local farmers.” Morgan paused for a moment “ We have a group trying to catch it but it has been months and they haven’t gotten far. We’re holding a tournament to try and find more capable fighters.” 

“ Sounds like a huge problem” Gaufre said calmly “ But you want us to fight? We’re just a circus.” Albert and Marlene nodded in response to what Gaufre was saying, Julio and Nayuta on the other hand shook their heads. 

“ Come on Gaufre I’m sure we can take whoever this is in a monster battle.” Nayuta said confidently with Julio who stood in agreement with her, Nayuta had really rubbed off on him and boosted his confidence. “ Me and Julio can go and enter this tournament.” 

Morgan frowned “ Well actually I was going to ask if she would join the tournament” Morgan pointed to Marlene, Nayuta and Julio looked rather surprised at this.

“B-but Julio’s the one with a magic instrument, he’s already got a great connection to monsters with that.” Nayuta said, slightly offended at what the mayor was saying

“Well compared to Her your friend Julio doesn’t really stack up, She shares a great bond with her monster, she trusts him enough even in great danger.” 

Albert nodded “ He’s right, Marlene and Rygar are incredibly close, and I’ve seen the two of them in battle before, they’re incredibly strong together.” 

Morgan nodded “ I’ll trust your leader’s word.” Morgan turned to Marlene “ Please come see me in town and I’ll finalize plans for the tournament, I’ll be in my house most of the week, gotta take care of my kids and all” Morgan chuckled before making his way out of the tent.  
Julio pouted and folded his arms “ This was my chance, and Marlene get’s to go instead.” Nayuta sighed agreeing with him “ I bet he only picked her cause she’s attractive.” This caused Albert to laugh quite loud.

“ Julio that isn’t true Mayor Morgan wouldn't pick Marlene based on looks.” Albert said in a very matter of fact tone

“And how do you know Albert??” Nayuta asked a stern tone in her voice 

“ Well I know this because Morgan happens to be gay.” Albert said folding his arms “ and I know this because he told me on our date last night.” 

Marlene smiled “ So that’s where you were Albert. I was wondering why you snuck out after dinner, though I didn’t know you were gay.”

Albert nodded “ Bi actually, I like both men and women, but that’s not important right now, what's important is we support Marlene and Rygar when they compete”

Marlene gave an awkward smile and looked at Julio " You can come with me to the competition, get a feel for battling you know?" 

Julio excitedly nodded at this and looked at Nayuta who gave him a half hearted thumbs up, and with that they all went to their rooms to get enough rest before another week of training and the tournament that was soon approaching.


	3. The Violet Cats

Marlene woke up early that morning, she had a long day ahead of her, she had to meet with the mayor at noon, and get the information on where to meet later that night for the tournament. She also had to deal with Nayuta and Julio tagging along after Marlene had offered Julio the opportunity to watch her battle. He had been excitedly asking her when she was going to battle all week in anticipation to watch his first monster battle in person and Nayuta wanted to make sure she could teach him the basics of battling for her own personal reasons which she refused to tell the rest of the troupe.

“Well let’s just hope today goes well. I don’t wanna disappoint Julio since this is going to be his first time watching me batte.” Marlene finished brushing her hair and left her room.

She entered the meeting hall to be greeted by Julio excitedly rambling to Gaufre about today. While Marlene couldn’t see his face she knew he was beyond irritated, but he was far too nice to say anything that could hurt Julio’s feelings. Marlene gave a small wave to Gaufre hoping Julio wouldn’t spot her, this hope was short-lived as Gaufre waved back at Marlene causing Julio to turn around and almost run over to her.

Marlene smiled at him “ You know, your attitude toward me competing has really changed in the past few days.” 

Julio looked embarrassed being called out like this “ Well I’ll admit what I said was wrong, I am really sorry.” He bowed his head “ Thank you for still letting me and Nayuta tag along even after what we said.” 

“ You’re forgiven for what you said, and I couldn’t let you just sit here while I went off and battled in a tournament. Being a monster Breeder is your dream after all.” Marlene placed her hand on Julio’s shoulder in comfort. “ Now go get, new girl and we’ll go over to the mayor’s house.” 

Julio’s expression lit up, he nodded happily and ran further into the tent to go get Nayuta. Marlene sighed before walking over to the large table on the end of the room and grabbing a piece of toast that Albert had buttered and layed out for everyone. They might have been going to meet the mayor early, but at least it prevented Julio and Nayuta from repeatedly asking her when the tournament would be that night. 

It took a minute or so but Nayuta and Julio quickly rejoined her in the meeting hall before they all turned to head into town. Marlene hadn’t really been in town since they arrived, it wasn’t like she was missing much since the town consisted of what looked like three houses, store or two, and the largest house at the end of the parabola of buildings which Marlene assumed was Mayor Morgan’s house, she took a moment to take in the peaceful air the town had, it was far different from her home town and she enjoyed that. 

“ Marlene are you ready for tonight? Is Rygar prepared? Are you prepared for a strong opponent” Julio questioned her incessantly. Marlene simply nodded absent mindedly having tuned him out by now. Nayuta had also taken to looking around the town, she had been around town but she still seemed intrigued by the simple town around them. Marlene wondered what kind of place Nayuta had come from, she assumed it was a pretty sheltered town based on how Nayuta acted but she couldn’t be sure if Nayuta never told her. 

“Well we’re here guys” Marlene said as she knocked on the door, no one opened it but from inside they heard the Mayor’s voice tell them to come inside. 

Marlene opened the door and saw the floor was littered with toys and six children ran around the room. Mayor Morgan looked incredibly tired as he picked up a few toys in one corner of the room while his children played in the other corner of the room. The trio walked over to him with sympathetic looks on their faces, He gave the group a weak smile. 

“Hello there, thank you for dropping by a bit early, I didn’t expect my kids to be this hyperactive today.” Morgan sighed holding his weak smile “ So let’s not delay, you need to know there to go for the tournament. Well it’s more like a single battle, you all are our last contestants left. Anyway We’ll meet on the edge of the Devil’s forest tonight, just past that gate in front of town.”

“Thank you sir, and I hope your children are able to calm down a little bit by that time.” Marlene gave him a comforting smile. 

“Thankfully I’ll have the baby sitter come in while the battle is going on.” Morgan said while sighing again “ I know it sounds bad but I can’t wait for that break.”

Nayuta giggled “ I can imagine, speaking of children, you must really like kids.”

Morgan’s weak smile returned “ Of course, children are our future after all, though maybe adopting all the orphans that have come through town looking for a home wasn’t the best idea.”

“I think what you’re doing is amazing, giving all of these orphans a home.” Julio said in a comforting tone “ I wish I had someone like you around when I was younger.” 

Marlene looked over at Julio, she knew he had a hard childhood, but it was rare he spoke about it even for something small like that, She hoped one day she could learn at least a little more about him other than the fact he grew up alone.

“ I’m sorry if you had a rough childhood, I hope your life in the Circus is better at least.” Morgan said giving Julio a worried look

“ It is, I’m so glad to have found a family like them.” Julio gave a big smile. “ Things have really been turning around for me since I met them.” Julio looked over and smiled at Marlene, she gave a small smile in response.

“I’m glad, you all seem like a very close troupe.” Morgan smiled, his smile was stronger this time. “ Well I should let you all go get ready for the battle, I’ll see you all tonight at the area I told you about.”

The trio nodded and turned to leave waving goodbye to Morgan while also doing their best to avoid the several toys that littered the ground. Once outside Nayuta gave a small chuckle

“ You would think the Mayor’s house would be a bit more clean since he’s the head of a village and all that.” Nayuta smiled.

“ Let him be Nayuta, He run’s a whole town and has six children to worry about. He probably doesn’t have the time to clean his house as often as he’d like.” Marlene stated a hint of anger in her voice. 

“ Whoa hey Marlene it was only a joke, didn’t mean to be offensive.” Nayuta defended herself only to be met by a glare from Marlene “ But you’re right that was a bit rude.” 

“Hey why don’t we go get some food from the store, have something nice to drink before we go back to training for tonight?” Julio asked, trying to diffuse the tension.

Marlene and Nayuta wordlessly agreed and the three made their way to the store. Marlene bought a small cup of tea and a scone while Nayuta bought a large bag of candy, and Julio bought a piece of cake. The three sat at a table that the shopkeeper had recently set up outside her store.

“ Hey Julio can I ask you something?” Nayuta managed to say between bites of her third chocolate bar. Julio also mid bite nodded in response. “ Well back at the Mayor’s house you said you had a rough childhood, what exactly was it like? Or what happened to make it rough?”

Julio looked taken aback hearing Nayuta’s question “ I’d rather not talk about it too much, I’ll just say that I went from home to home as a kid.” 

“ Even that small detail sounds pretty bad, I’m sorry you had to go through that Julio.” Nayuta put her hand on his shoulder 

“ I’m glad you joined us Julio, and that things have improved for you since you’ve joined us.” Marlene said as she gave Julio a sympathetic smile.

“ Thank you, you two. But Maybe we should get back to the tent, don’t want to fall behind on our training Nayuta.” 

Nayuta groaned “ Dang it Julio why’d you have to remind me that we have work to do today.” 

Marlene smiled “ You don’t want to fall behind Nayuta, if you keep slack off so much you’ll end up not doing well in our next show.” 

“Next show?? I’m going to perform in the next show??” Nayuta asked her tone was a mix of excitement and nervousness. 

Julio chuckled “ Of course you’re one of us now and we all have to do our part.” he pat Nayuta on tha back “ Don’t worry too much though, everyone will make sure the next show goes smoothly, we have each other's backs.” 

Nayuta and Marlene smiled before getting ready to leave and go back to the tent. Marlene spent her time getting Rygar ready to battle, nothing too intense as she didn’t want to tire him out before the battle. Julio with the help of Gaufre spent his time trying to get closer to his monster Mystery and get him ready for the next show to try and avoid a mishap like what happened during the last show they put on. Nayuta spent her time reading a book Albert had given her to help her learn some basics of their performances. With all this practice time flew by and the time for their battle. 

Marlene got Rygar ready while Julio and Nayuta excitedly spoke outside of the tent, Marlene walked outside of the tent with Rygar who was excited to get outside and battle. The three made their way to the devil’s forest. After walking for about five minutes they found the Mayor standing across from a duo dressed in Purple clothing, The girl was in a purple dress with a white skirt under it her hair a light blue, The boy a purple jean jacket with a blue shirt and purple shorts, he had a grey patch over his right eye. With them was a purple-pink Piroro. 

“ Hey I’ve never seen a Piroro like that one? What kind is it?” Julio questioned looking interested at the piroro

“That is our devious Grelo.” The boy said “ And I find it rude you didn’t ask our names first, Isn’t that rude lady Petty?”

The girl next to him who they presumed to be Petty folded her arms “ Of course it’s rude, but who wouldn’t know of the great violet cats right Dotty?” 

The two laughed in unison, while the other four people in the area looked confused and a bit weirded out. 

Dotty looked at the group in front of him and dramatically pointed at them “ I am the great Barron Dotty and this is Lady Petty, and together we are the great duo.” The two posed with Petty bowing and Dotty pointing into the air “ The Violet Cats”  
“... Um ok? I’m Julio.” Julio looked at the others, very confused “ That’s Nayuta and you’ll be fighting against Marlene.” 

“Hm regardless of who I fight I know this battle will be easy for me to win.” Dotty laughed and Petty joined in 

Morgan sighed “ Let’s just begin this battle. Each side please get ready.” 

Marlene stepped forward and Rygar walked to his place on the battlefield, Dotty and his Grelo did the same. Morgan gave a hand motion and the battle began. 

“ Ok Julio first lesson, in a battle there are three types of moves, Long range, short range, and support.” Marlene said calmly pausing for Julio who was taking notes. “ This for example is a long range move. Rygar Charge.” 

Rygar charged at Grelo aiming to hit the Piroro with his horns. 

Dotty laughed “ That’s not going to work, Grelo one-two” 

Grelo spun and smacked Rygar in the face with one of his arms, after landing the hit it vanished for a moment reappearing next to Rygar landing another heavy hit to Rygar’s side, Rygar staggered back putting a short distance between him and Grelo.

Marlene put all her focus on the battle while still trying to instruct Julio “ This is a support move, Rygar force.” 

Rygar let out a howl, the air around him seemed to change, the area felt heavier almost. Dotty ignored this and called for his Grelo to use one-two again, The grelo attempted to hit Rygar again, but Rygar dodged with ease this time.   
“ You see Rygar’s support ability increases the gravity around him, slowing everyone down making it easier for him to dodge enemy attacks, and now let’s use his close range skill Rygar bolt.” Marlene said confidently.

Rygar’s horns began to glow with electricity before a blue bolt shot out of his horns hitting Grelo with a huge amount of force sending the piroro flying to the other side of the battlefield.

Dotty gasped “ HEY. That move was unfair, but regardless Grelo will destroy your monster with ease. Grelo Ice boom.” 

Grelo raised his hands into the air creating a ice shard and sending it flying at Rygar who avoided it easily again, Marlene directed Rygar to use charge again which he landed the attack dealing a heavy blow to the Grelo sending it flying yet again. The Grelo bounced when it hit the ground. It attempted to get back up but it fell back to the ground. 

“ Looks like Marlene wins this battle, Thank you both for participating.” Morgan announced.

“ Looks like our plan failed Petty. We can’t keep stealing money from this pitiful Village anymore.” Dotty grumbled “ The violet cats may be thwarted now but we’ll make use to come back with a vengeance.” 

“Dotty hush they can hear you.” Petty whispered looking at the other four who were now glaring at them. “ And besides I’ve told you my family can give us all the money we need.” 

“Well Lady Petty, you know Villain rule#1: Make money in the evilest way possible, and about them hearing us you know Villain rule# 2 When your plans are exposed, RUN FOR THE HILLS.” Dotty yelled that last part already running away from the battlefield with Petty. Morgan ran after them for a short distance but quickly gave up as they ran out of sight.  
“I can’t believe we allowed those hooligans to swindle us like that.” Morgan growled before turning to the other three “ I can’t thank you enough for stopping those two, I’ll send reward money and some supplies to your tent within the coming days, and you’ll be given access to the devil’s forest. I do wish you three the best of luck finding the monster that’s been attacking our town.” 

Morgan walked ahead of the group as they made their was back to town, Marlene, Nayuta, and Julio walked a bit further in the back of the group to discuss a course of action to use when dealing with the devil of the forest.

“ We should get some more training before we head into the forest.” Marlene said petting Rygar who walked happily next to her. “ Mayor Morgan is sending some gadgets for our shows to the tent that can help with our training.”   
“Gadgets?? What’s a Gadget?” Nayuta said with a confused look on her face. 

“Their tricks we use in the circus, they make our performances look way better and also help train the monsters in certain areas.” Julio said happily “ They are able to help a monster get faster or stronger or even more accurate when battling, they're super helpful when training.” 

“Wow I’ve never heard of something like that” Nayuta said in amazement. 

“Well you’ll have to learn how to use one, we’ll need them to make sure we’re strong enough to face whatever we may encounter in that forest.” Marlene said looking into the dark gloomy area that was the Devil’s forest.


	4. The Devil's Forest

It had been a week since Marelene had beaten Dotty in the tournament, they had been given 1000g for winning and three gadgets to help each of their monsters train. Rygar had been training with a plate trick, a large plate spun on the top of a large needle. Gaufre and his monster Spork had been using a knife trick, a large jack in the box would pop open randomly and Spork would throw a knife into the target popped out at random. Julio and Mystery had been using a drum trick to train, Mystery would hit a drum causing colored rings to fly out of the back of the drum each time it would get hit. Each of these tricks helped the monsters train in certain areas, for example Mystery was getting better at hitting hard with his physical attacks like one-two while he would use the drum trick.

Everyone was gathered around for the weekly meeting, they had gone over the usual information, but at the end Albert held the group back for an extra announcement. 

“ Now as you all know today Marlene’s heading into the Devil’s Forest with our monsters. She also wants Nayuta and Julio to come along, I hope you all are ready for today as you don’t know what you might face in that forest.” Albert nodded at the three of them “ Gaufre and I will stay behind and work on keeping the gadgets in top shape.” 

“We’ll work just as hard as you three.” Gaufre said proudly, they assumed he was smiling but couldn’t be sure due to the mask hiding his face. 

“We’ll make you two proud.” Nayuta cheered happily raising her fist into the air, Julio followed by raising his fist in the air too. 

Marlene sighed “ I’ll make sure these two knuckle heads don’t hurt themselves out in the forest. Nayuta might run off and hug a golem or something.” 

“Hey that’s rude Marlene.” Nayuta said sternly while the rest of the room suppressed a laugh. “Anyway we should get going, We’re losing daylight here.” 

“Wow Nayuta when did you become one to take charge?” Marlene jested as she stood from her chair. Nayuta scoffed and folded her arms in anger. 

Julio stood and joined his two friends in getting their monsters ready for the adventure, Nayuta used her magic to allow them to bring two other monsters to them from the tent as long as they had one with them. So with Spork by their side they headed out of the tent.

“Nayuta I must admit your magic is incredibly useful.” Marlene said calmly “ If we can use your magic to do things like that it’ll make traveling much easier.” 

Nayuta gave a wide smile “ Wow I’m flattered that’s the first time you’ve given me a compliment Marlene.” 

Marlene scoffed “Don’t let it get to your head Nayuta, or else this was a one time thing.” 

Nayuta pouted, and Julio chuckled “ Don’t worry Nayuta Marlene will warm up to you eventually.” 

Marlene rolled her eyes “ Whatever let’s just get going and find this ‘Devil of the Forest’ and get this mission over with.” 

With that the group left town and headed out to the forest, as they walked into the forest the trees slowly blocked out the sunlight and they were left in a bleak darkness only with a green glow to light the way. They make their way to a small clearing with a jar resting next to a wooden blockade. Marlene walked over and placed a hand on the jar, a large genie like figure flew out of the far and floated over them. The trio took a step back in shock.

“Hello my name is Baja, I am here to act as a guide for any traveler who comes through dangerous places such as this.” Baja motioned to the wooden blockade “Your monster should be able to break that barrier down and allow you to venture forth into the woods but I must suggest you walk that way first.” Baja pointed to a short pathway with a red chest at the end of it.

“ Wow How did we not see that walking over here?” Marlene asked, genuinely confused. 

The group walked over to the chest and slowly opened it, inside was a green bandana, Marlene pulled it out of the chest, and in response to this Spork started eyeing the bandana happily, Marlene smiled and put the bandana on Spork’s neck. He put his hands or paws on it happily. 

“ Weird thing to put into a treasure chest, but it looks like Spork really likes it, so that’s good.” Nayuta said, looking into the chest to see if there was anything else in there. 

“I guess Baja wanted to give Spork a gift.” Julio chuckled. “ I mean Baja is a monster isn’t he?” 

Marlene looked at Julio confused “ How do you know Baja is a monster, but a different type of Piroro confuses you?” Julio simply shrugged in response. “Whatever let’s just keep going.” 

Marlene directed Sport to break the wooden blockade which he did with ease. The group advanced further into the forest, making their way into a clearing where in the center a dark figure it was vaguely shaped like a mocchi but all that could be seen were two yellow glowing eyes. 

“It’s a Noramon?” Nayuta looked afraid at the dark figure in front of them “They’re monsters of dark anima, after something horrible happens or a monster spends too much time away from humans it can turn them into actual monsters.”   
“That’s horrible,” Marlene whispered, doing her best not to alert the Noramon “Is there a way to help it?” 

Nayuta nodded “ With mine and Julio’s instruments we can purify the dark anima of a monster if we are able to defeat them in a battle, but that still could be a little dangerous. We don’t want to get hurt.” 

Julio stepped in front of Nayuta “ Well we don’t have a choice in that matter anymore.” The two girls turned to see the noramon sprinting at them. Spork stopped it from hitting it’s trainers. The second it collided with Sport the dark figure dispersed and two monsters appeared in its place. One was a Pixie and the other was a Golem. Nayuta’s magic kicked in and Mystery and Rygar appeared next to Spork in order to join in the battle.

The Pixie fired two ray blasts at Spork who dodged swiftly. While the Golem launched his fist at Mystery who blocked the attack like it was nothing. 

“Wow That training really paid off .” Nayuta said slightly astonished.

“Of course it paid off, I told you it would.” Marlene said folding her arms “ Spork use spin sword and Mystery Ice boom” 

Spork launched himself forward spinning midair using his tail to slap the Pixie onto the ground and in one hit defeating her, Mystery’s ice boom attack hitting the golem hard in the chest, Rygar took advantage of this using his charge attack and crashing right into the Golem’s chest causing it to topple over. Leaving both of the monster defeated, once they were defeated a white aura rose around the two, they seemed to regain some health before running off further into the forest seemingly freed from the dark anima that had plagued them moments before, Mystery and Rygar vanished due to Nayuta’s magic once again. 

“ That was slightly scary.” Julio muttered after the two monsters vanished into the deeper parts of the forest. 

“I’m just glad we won.” Nayuta responded looking over at Spork “ Our monsters have gotten so strong since we got those gadgets haven’t they.”

“They have” Marlene said while continuing to walk deeper into the forest “ Let’s keep going, we can’t let one battle slow us down or we may never get through this forest.” 

Nayuta and Julio nodded and ran back to her side, They continued making their way through the forest. The rest of their walk was generally calm, Spork found a few things to give Marlene as gifts, each time he gave something to her she would smile and put it in her bag. The calm air didn’t last too long however as once they had reached a fork in the road a small child fell through the trees above. 

“Wh-What the.” Nayuta yelled seeing the small child. 

“Oh no I’ve been spotted.” The boy yelled before sprinting further into the forest. 

“Hey wait.” Julio yelled as the boy disappeared into the trees. “He’s gone, why is a boy like that in the forest.” 

“I have no idea, we should go back to town to see if he’s a child from the town.” Nayuta said, as she started to turn back to where they had come from.

“Are you an actual idiot Nayuta?” Marlene angrily said “ There’s a child running around in these woods all alone with a bunch of Noramon and a possible dangerous monster literally called ‘ the devil’ and you want to leave him behind??” 

Nayuta and Julio stood there in stunned silence, They didn’t expect her to react like that. Julio took a moment to process what she had said and he nodded in agreement. 

“Marlene is right, We can’t leave that kid behind in this forest.” Julio said walking over to stand by Marlene’s side

“I guess you’re right sorry.” Nayuta said with a bit of sadness in her voice “ I guess I’m not used to missions like this, back in my hometown we didn’t do anything without talking to the village head first.” 

“Where you’re from must be pretty boring” Marlene said, folding her arms “ And you really need to learn to do things like this on your own, don’t let a person in power boss you around and control all that you do.” 

Nayuta smiled and nodded “Well then let’s go.” Nayuta walked past Marlene and Julio and began to lead the way. 

“Wow she really took that to heart.” Marlene said jokingly as she went to catch up with Nayuta. 

Nayuta had started power walking through the forest with Marlene and Julio struggling to catch up with her. She only stopped walking when they ran into a large plank with a red painted X on it with a sign warning people not to go further into the forest. 

“What do we do now?” Julio questioned “ And how did that kid get past here the two hills next to this plank are way too steep to climb around.” 

Marlene chuckled “ Julio have you learned nothing from our adventure so far?” She then patted Spork’s arm and pointed at the large plank, Spork leapt into the air and used his tail to smash the plank to pieces. 

Nayuta giggled as she and Marlene stepped stepped over the broken pieces of the plank that had been previously blocking their path, Julio sighed and followed them, once they made it a bit past the broken planks they saw the boy once again he looked rather scared to see them after bashing through the plank like that. 

“What. Man you guys are persistent.” The boy yelled before running off again. 

“Hey wait.” Nayuta yelled again “ He just keeps running, why won’t he stay put.” 

Julio shook his head “ It doesn’t matter right now we’ll need to catch up to him” 

Merlene nodded her head and the three ran after him, after a moment of running they ran into a part of the forest which was far creepier than the other parts. The trees had creepy smiles carved into them and the anima in this area was so strong that the faces on the trees would glow a bright white color every few seconds. 

“Wow this forest keeps getting weirder and weirder.” Marlene said looking around. “ And I can’t see and end to this little maze of trees.” 

“Let’s just keep walking, I’m sure we’ll find a way through this place soon enough.” Nayuta said confidently

They all nodded and started walking, each twist and turn looked the exact same, they spent what felt like an hour walking around this part of the forest with each new small clearing seeming like the same they had just passed. They fought through at least three sets of Noramon, Spork and Rygar had taken a little bit of damage in these battles but it was nothing for the trio to start worrying about. 

“ This is taking forever, and we haven’t gotten anywhere.” Marlene groaned looking around “ I feel like we’re getting nowhere.” 

Julio walked down a small path ahead of the other two “ Guys we’re back at the start.” 

“What!?” Marlene yelled running over next to him. Seeing the same clearing that they had been in before entering the creepy part of the forest. 

“This is insane,” Julio yelled before leaning back onto a tree next to him. 

“Well I think I mapped out this part of the forest using markings I left on the ground , but it doesn’t make any sense looking at this place.” Nayuta showed the other two her map, it was a three by three grid with no exits that they could see except for a small loop in the road that they had gone through.

“Maybe whatever magic that makes the trees light up also makes us loop through the same place over and over.” Julio said looking at the map.

“If that’s the case then we need to go there.” Marlene said pointing to a corner of the map “ That must be how the loop works since they have that exit that loops on the opposite side of it right?” 

Nayuta nodded “ I’ll lead the way and we’ll get through this place and find that kid.” Nayuta turned and lead the way and this time the group made their way through the creepy part of the woods and came to a clearing in the woods yet again, and like before the boy noticed them and yelled 

"You guys are starting to get on my nerves." The boy yelled before running away again 

"He keeps running away." Nayuta muttered " If he was from the village you would think he would run towards us." 

Marlene sighed "Nayuta are you kidding me? I think it's pretty obvious what's going on by now." 

"Regardless we need to catch up with him." Julio yelled as he and Spork ran after the boy, Marlene and Nayuta sighed before running after him. 

They quickly came to a fork in the road yet again and in between the two paths was Baja's large jar. Marlene ran over and placed her hand on the jar once again causing him to spring forth from the jar like he had done before.

"Welcome to the furthest reaches of the Devil's forest. Ahead you will come to meet the true devil of this forest. Be aware for this battle will be your most challenging yet." 

Marlene nodded "Thank you Baja. We'll make sure to win this fight." 

Baja was about to return to his jar before he stopped "If you need I can teleport you to the entrance of this forest when needed. Please see me when you want to leave this place." 

The trio nodded and thanked him before walking up a steep path leading to a very large clearing in the trees. The moon could be seen above. Showing just how long they had spent in this forest. 

The boy stood in the center of the clearing a smirk on his face and his arms folded. 

"Looks like you've found my lair." The boy said angrily

"So you're the devil of this forest." Nayuta yelled back at the boy

"Obviously he is, after all of this time you're just now figuring this out." Marlene said to Nayuta a bit angry

"My name is Tico, I am the devil of this forest and I've got an incredibly strong monster working for me." Tico yelled. As he said this a large cat like monster with energy wing-like structures jumped in front of him.

"That's a Maya." Nayuta gasped as she said this the Maya charged at the trio. 

"No time to talk about what it is we need to fight it." Julio yelled, Nayuta brought Mystery and Rygar to their area so the two could help with the battle. 

The Maya raised the two wing like shapes on her back, and from between them a rainbow beam shot forward hitting Mystery and sending him back with a serious amount of damage done. With Marlene's command Spork jumped into the air to use his spin sword attack Maya who avoided it easily and returned with a claw and slashed at Spork causing him to stumble back, Maya charged her rainbow attack and fired it at Sport point blank sending him soaring across the clearing. 

"This isn't good" Marlene growled after realizing Spork had taken too much damage to fight on. "Rygar force now." 

Rygar howled just in time to help himself avoid a beam attack from Maya. Mystery used his iceboom attack after jumping into the air using the effects of force to send the attack rocketing into Maya. She staggered back in shock and pain.

"Rygar now." Marlene yelled 

Rygar charged into Maya. He continued running until he had driven Maya into a tree. He jumped back to show that Maya had been defeated by the combo they had pulled off. Tico ran in front of the Maya.

"Don't hurt her." Tico said through the tears no streaming down his face. "She's my only family, don't hurt her." 

"Your only family?" Julio asked a shocked look on his face "I'm so sorry, here we can take her back to the tent to heal ok?"

"Wha-What?." Tico stammered

Julio turned and looked at Marlene and Nayuta "We'll return to the tent with these two and talk about what to do from there."

Marlene nodded walking over to help Tico calm down. Julio helped Maya stand up again,and the group made their way to Baja's jar in order to return to the tent. 

Once home they all sat in the meeting room with Tico. Tico was huddled under a blanket and had been given a warm bowl of soup to eat from Albert. 

"I've lived in that forest all my life because as you can see I'm not normal." Tico motioned to wolf-like ears and a tail that was a part of him. Something the trio hadn't noticed in the forest "I'm not like normal monsters either so I didn't belong anywhere. Maya was the only one that cared for me, she's like a mother to me." 

Albert nodded along listening to Tico's story " Well rest assured Tico, she'll be fine, she just needs some rest. However we've also arranged for you to give an apology to the whole town for what you did." 

Tico looked rather glum hearing this. "I know what I did was wrong, but I didn't have any other choice." 

Julio who hadn't spoken since they left the forest finally spoke up " He shouldn't be punished for this He's right he didn't do anything wro-"

Albert held up his hand and silenced Julio " I know and he won't be punished I'll make sure of that." Albert paused for a moment before turning to Tico " How's the soup? Are the clothes we gave you a good replacement from the rags you used to wear?" 

Tico smiled after eating another spoonful of soup "The soup is great. I've never eaten something so good, and these clothes are so soft thank you so much or giving them to me." 

“Wow the kid has really warmed up to you hasn’t he Albert?” Marlene asked looking over at Tico who was finishing his third bowl of soup in an hour

Albert smiled ignoring Marlene’s comment "I'm glad you're comfortable." As he said this Mayor Morgan walked into the meeting room. "Ah hello Morgan is everyone ready for Tico's apology?"

"Yes of course though they're a little upset they were called here so late I must admit." Morgan chucked. "Those clothes you gave the boy look like a perfect fit, did you just have them lying around?"

"I made them. When I'm not cooking, or cleaning, or any other household duty. I like to make clothes for the troupe." Albert smiled as he said this.

"O-oh wow, you do all that? That's amazing." Morgan said with a hint of astonishment in his voice. "Well anyway let's get this apology underway." 

Albert nodded before turning to Tico “ I know it must be scary going in front of all these people to apologize, so if you get scared just grab my hand ok?” Tico nodded taking a deep breath before following Albert

They lead Tico onto the stage where they would usually give performances. Albert stood to his left and Morgan to his right. Tico opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, he seemed visibly afraid to speak until Albert opened his hand for Tico to hold to help him feel safer. Toco slowly grabbed Albert's hand before mustering up the courage to speak 

"I'm so sorry for what I did. I shouldn't have hurt your plants, I was just so scared, and lonely, and hungry, and I was so scared that I wouldn't be accepted by anyone So I stole from you all." Tico paused tears in his eyes "I'm so sorry, please don't hate me."

He finished this sentence and turned to hug Albert's leg as he started to cry 

"As a father of six I know children make mistakes all the time, but we shouldn't hold this above them. It's our job to forgive them and help them grow into adults better than we are." Morgan raised his hand "I know you all agree with me too." 

The crowd in the stands cheered in agreement. Tico looked rather surprised when he heard the positive response the crowd was giving him. He let go of Albert’s leg and gave a small wave to the crowd. 

The next week was spent with everyone packing getting ready to move to the next town and the troupe getting to know Tico who Albert had made a part of the troupe after the Devil’s forest incident. The troupe ended their week by gathering in front of the main gate of the town to plan their next move as a troupe. 

“I have a request.” Nayuta said,getting the attention of the rest of the troupe. “ Can we go to Campana next? It’s the capital and I’ve always wanted to go.” 

Marlene almost yelled her response “ No way, I’m not going to Campana.” 

“Aw but Marlene, it’s the capital, how can you not want to go?” Nayuta said pouting 

“I have my reasons, and they are none of your concern.” Marlene said folding her arms angrily 

“Well if Nayu wants to go to Campana so do I.” Tico said happily standing next to Nayuta. 

“Regardless, Campana is a great distance away, We should go to a place like Grabad to refuel before making a choice like that.” Albert said folding his arms hoping this would calm some of the arguing that was going on.

“Yes, Let’s get fuel before we make a decision.” Gaufre said, mimicked Albert’s stance and folded his arms. “We should get going now too, don’t want to lose daylight.” 

“Gaufre is right, let’s head out everyone.” Julio called already walking towards the packed up tent. 

The rest of the troupe followed everyone discussing where they might go after they refueled in Grabad. Marlene fervently refused the idea of going to Campana while Nayuta and Tico pestered her to change her mind. Unbenounced to them however two people were hidden behind a cluster of trees in town and were listening to their every word.

“So they’re going to Grabad next huh?” Dotty whispered “ We’ll beat them there and make sure they can’t get any Geonyte fuel for themselves. We’ll sell the fuel for a high price and be rich.”

Petty sighed “ Dotty I told you my family could give us all the money we need.” 

“Hush Lady Petty, don’t forget the villains rules that we’ve learned.” Dotty whispered “ Now then let’s hurry off, We’ve got a circus troupe to ruin.”


	5. The Industrial Town of Grabad

The troupe arrived at the town of Grabad, a large metal city layered in three stories, the bottom two stories built underground. The whole place looked like it was made by a robot. 

“Welcome to the city of Grabad, an industrial town where we can refuel on Geonyte before moving onto a new town.” Albert said looking around at the giant metal town.

“Hey um, what’s Geonyte.” Nayuta said, stepping closer to Albert while also looking in amazement at the town around her. 

“You don’t know what Geonyte is?” Albert asked, rather confused.

“Geonyte is an energy source collected from ancient trees, they are able to produce a near unlimited amount so humans are able to use this energy to power their machines.” Julio said, garnering a confused look from Marlene “ I used to live near a town like this one that’s how I know so much about this.” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Anyway, Nayuta you must be from really far out in the boonies huh?” Malene jokingly asked.

“Hey this place is pretty scary.” Gaufre muttered peeking out from the tent.

“Yeah It’s so dark and everyone looks so sad.” Tico muttered cowering next to Gaufre. “ I haven’t seen a single person smiling since we came here.” 

“Yeah this place is so gloomy.” Julio said putting a hand on Tico’s head “ Let’s put on a performance? We can bring some cheer to this town.”

Marlene folded her arms “ That’s actually a good idea, I mean we can use the money we make to buy some Geonyte and go to another town.” Nayuta looked at Marlene excitedly “ But, We’ll be going anywhere that ISN’T Campana.” 

Nayuta pouted “What do you have against Campana.” 

Marlene scoffed “ It’s none of your business, do you kids really need to put your noses in everyone’s businesses.” 

“Hey you’re only like three years older than me.” Nayuta said “ And where’s this attitude coming from, I thought we were starting to get along after the adventure in the Devil’s Forest.” 

“ That was a small adventure, this is a little bit more serious in my book.” Marlene said walking away from the group. “ I’m going to adventure around town, I’ll be back later tonight with a gadget for Tico and Maya to use.” 

With that Marlene walked off into the town. First thing she needed to do was see if she could find a place to order some Geonyte when they had the money to buy it. She asked around town and learned there was a large place at the bottom of the town that you could order Geonyte from. 

Matlene walked down the three flights of stairs and immediately knew that the large gadget shop with a bright green glowing flooring leading up into the store. Marlene opened the door and was greeted by a girl with purple hair who was leaned up against the counter. 

“Hey there, the name’s Daisy.” The girl said, smiling at Marlene “ How can I help you?” 

“I was wondering if you had any Geonyte in stock? My troupe needs to refuel while we are here.” Marlene said, looking around at the gadgets in the store.

“Sadly we don’t have any, We haven’t had any Geonyte or a while, the factory that produces it has been on lockdown for almost a month now.” Daisy said, a hint of anger in her voice. “Anyway did you say troupe? You’re part of that Orcoro circus right?”

Marlene nodded “I am, but that doesn’t matter right now. You haven’t had Geonyte for a month now? How is that possible? The supply is usually high running here isn’t it?”

Daisy sighed “ The factory that usually supplies us isn’t allowing anyone to get Geonyte, the new management of the place won’t even let anyone into the factory anymore either. I work there part time and even I don’t get access to the main factory”

“That’s horrible, they’ve basically just shut down this whole town’s economy haven’t they?” Marlene asked, folding her arms angrily. “ Even people who work for them don’t get access to something like that in this town.” 

Daisy smiled “ Only chance we have at getting into the factory is a tournament going on next week.” Daisy picked up a paper off the desk to show Marlene “ You know after what you guys did in Colno your troupe might be able to win.” 

Marlene looked up from the paper confused “ How did you know about what happened in Colno?” 

“ Word travels fast, this town usually gets all the gossip too hun.” Daisy said, holding a slight smile. “ Anyway I’ll need to swing by your tent soon, maybe work out an agreement with your leader.” 

Marlene sighed “ I’m sure Albert would love to help, plus at this rate Nayuta might as well force him into helping like she did in Colno.” Marlene returned the paper to Daisy. “ Well thank you for the info, I best be off I have some errands to run.” 

Daisy waved goodbye to Marlene. “ I’ll be around your tent to talk to your ringleader soon. Plus I’d get to see you again.” Daisy winked as Marlene left the store, Daisy couldn’t see it but Marlene was blushing slightly. 

Marlene made her way up the stairs to the floor above, stopping by a gadget shop on her way so she could buy Tico a gadget for him to use to help get his Maya stronger. The two women sitting behind the counter both gave her a small smile, Both of the women looked almost the exact same except for an M and L button they wore on their hats. 

“Hi the name’s Lynn, and that’s my good friend Maddie.” The woman on the right side said, smiling “ You know what kind of Gadget you're looking for”

“Anything good for training a Maya.” Marlene said scanning over the catalog of gadgets for sale. 

“Oh I’ve got the thing.” Maddie said, grabbing a picture of what looked like a spiral with a ball on top. “ The monster stands on top of the gadget doing a handstand, it helps build up a monster’s strength and speeds up reaction time when being used at higher levels.” 

“Reminds me of the newest M-pop performance act that came out last week.” Lynn said looking at the picture of the gadget.

“M-pop? What’s that?” Marlene asked while buying the gadget and setting up the delivery date with Maddie who rolled at the question.

“Oh boy here she goes.” Maddie mumbled jokingly. 

“M-pop, It’s music made primarily using monsters, it’s really popular in the eastern part of the country.” Lynn said, happily grabbing the papers from Maddie to process the order. “ My favorite groups are Rancha X and Rip Velvet.” 

“Thank you for doing business with us.” Maddie interrupted “ Please come by again if you need any more gadgets.” 

Marlene just gave them a small smile before leaving the store to head back to the tent. On her way she took note of a small supply store on the first floor after their show she’d have go by the store to buy some items for the monsters to use in a during the tournament next week, or at least items for Rygar and Mystery since Spork’s bandana turned out to have some magic attached to it like the other items that could be bought from the store. Turning away from the story she saw Albert talking to a man with a blonde pompadour and an Elvis like outfit with stars bedazzled all over it, next to him was Daisy.

“He looks like quite the interesting character.” Marlene mumbles, chuckling. “ He must be if he works with her.” 

Albert noticed her and motioned her to follow him and the man into the tent. Marlene walked up next to Albert, she handed him the receipt from the gadget shop she had just visited. He nodded before opening the tent flap doors to the meeting room that everyone was already in. 

“ Hello everyone this man wants to ask us a favor.” Albert said gesturing to the Blonde haired man standing next to him.

“ The name’s Bruce, Bruce the lone star” The man said, waving at the troupe “ This girl is Daisy, we come here with a proposal and some news. The news is that no one can sell you Geonyte in this town as the factory that produces it has stopped supplying us.”

“What?! That’s not fair to anyone.” Nayuta yelled angrily, most likely upset that this meant that it would take even longer for the chance to go to Campana.

“There is a way to get Geonyte through a tournament next week.” Daisy called “ We wanted to propose the idea that, if you win we split the Geonyte, you get your fuel, and we make money selling the Geonyte.” 

“So this is just a plan for you to make money?” Marnele asked, folding her arms . 

“Well yeah I guess it is.” Daisy smiled “ But what else can you do right now right?”

Marlene sighed “That’s sadly true.” Marlene looked up at Albert “ Well what should we do?” 

Albert paused for a moment thinking about how to answer “ We really have no choice in the matter do we? We’ll help you get the Geonyte.” He turned to look at Marlene “You’ll be ok battling again right?”

Marlene smiled “ Actually I’m not the one competeing.” She turned to look at Julio “ I’m letting Julio compete instead, give him a chance to get used to monster battles himself.”

Julio stood up in surprise “ You’re having me do what??” Despite the initial shock a large smile was spread across his face.

“You heard me, I’m giving you a chance to shine.” Marlene smiled, before turning to look at Daisy and Bruce “ Well there you have it we’ll help you get that Geonyte, now shouldn’t you two get back to work?”

Daisy and Bruce looked at each other before hurrying out of the tent in order to return to their jobs. Nayuta, Julio and Tico were excitedly talking on the far end of the meeting room while Nayuta, Gaufre, and Albert were on the other end of the tent.

“Do you really think he can win this Marlene?” Gaufre asked, twiddling his thumbs together nervously. 

Marlene paused, she knew she wanted him to compete right after she learned about the tournament, but she hadn’t really thought if he could win or not. “ I hope he can win this, he’d be crushed if he lost in this tournament.” 

Albert shook his head “ He’ll do fine, he’s learned the basics from you and from what I’ve heard his opponents are two goofy kids, remind me of the two you beat in Colno.” 

Marlene chuckled “ If that’s the case then he’s going to have no problem with this battle.”


	6. Facing a New Foe

Over the past week Albert had canceled the show they were going to put on in favor of using some of the money that the two working with them would make to help the people of the town, It would be far more helpful compared to putting on a simple performance. This allowed Julio time to train for the tournament with the help of Marlene, he had gotten pretty good with the basics of battling and Marlene had become certain he would win this tournament. 

It was currently the morning of the tournament, Julio and Marlene were making their way to the item shop. Julio had already decided what he wanted to buy for Mystery in advance. When they had entered the store a woman smiled at them from behind the counter. 

“Hey there, my name's Jinx, welcome to my store.”If you need any help please feel free to ask.”

“ My friend here is looking for some goggles to give to his piroro.” Marlene said motioning to Julio. “ He’s competing in his first tournament today and wants to be ready.” 

Jinx looked over at Julio “ Well what are you looking for?”

“I wanted to get a pair of goggles for my monster.” Julio said, looking over at a rack of goggles behind the desk. “ Maybe a pair of blue ones for him, they’d look nice” 

Jinx smiled “I know exactly what you mean.” She turned and, after digging through a small box behind her, placed a pair of blue goggles on the table. The goggles looked like the perfect size for a Piroro’s head. “ Those will cost you about 300g.” 

Julio handed her the money and picked up the goggles inspecting them “ These look perfect, they’ll help Mystery with his accuracy since he’s been getting dust in his eyes lately, it’s really been a problem since we’ve gotten here.”

Marlene nodded “ I’m sure Mystery will be thankful for you giving these to him, even if he can only use them with that visor thing on his head down.”

“Thank you for your service.” Jinx smiled, placing the money into the cash register “ I’m sure those goggles will help your Piroror, especially during the tournament today, but don’t you think you should be heading there now?”

Marlene and Julio gave Jinx a confused look, Marlene was about to ask her what she meant when the door to the store was thrown open by a panicked Daisy.

“We were wrong about the time of the tournament “ Daisy managed to say while catching her breath “They changed the time last minute, Nayuta is already there we need to head out now.” 

With that the three near sprinted out of the store, Julio turning to wave goodbye to Jinx as she yelled after them wishing them luck at the tournament. They ran to an upper floor of the large city complex, upon reaching the tournament area they were met by Nayuta arguing with Dotty and Petty.

“Look man this is a tournament and we are enemies , so stop flirting with me.” Nayuta yelled at Dotty. “Besides, aren’t you dating her?” Nayuta pointed at Petty angrily 

“ While yes we are dating, We’re fine with the idea of polyamory.” Petty said calmly “ But that still doesn’t excuse how Dotty is acting.” Petty folded her arms and glared at Dotty, quite the contrast to her usually calm demeanor.   
Dotty sighed “ Alright, I am sorry my kind raven haired lady. However if you ever change your mind I’m always here.” Dotty winked while both Petty and Nayuta sighed. “ Besides our time to battle has come hasn’t it?”

Nayuta turned to see her allies all out of breath behind her. “ You guys made it great.” Her angry frown quickly turned into a soft smile. “ We don’t really have time so talk, but I know you can beat this guy Julio, give it your all.” 

Daisy nodded and rested her elbow on Marlene’s shoulder “You got this partner.” 

“Partner??” Nayuta said, sounding pretty angry, folding both her arms.

“Well yeah we are business partners now aren’t we?” Daisy said calmly. “ Or did you forget about that part.” 

“Let’s just get this battle underway ok guys.” Julio interrupted standing in between Nayuta and Daisy. 

Dotty laughed “ Yes let’s begin.” As he said this, a Gitan, a monster with two long ears and a long tail with the ability to fly in the air using them, and his Grelo stepped onto the battlefield.

To match him Julio sent out Mystery and Rygar. At the ring of a bell Julio yelled for Mystery to use Ice boom Dotty’s Gitan was almost instantly taken out by that attack, barely able to stand after taking the hit.

“Don’t think this means you’ve won yet.” Dotty yelled, motioning at his Gitan. “ Skewer them Gitan.” 

The Gitan flew forward at Mystery using a trident it held to stab at Mystery, the attack barely grazed Mystery’s side before Rygar charged into the Gitan knocking it out and saving Mystery from a heavy hit. However this left Rygar wide open to an attack from Grelo, an Ice Boom crashing into Rygar’s side causing him to stagger to the side. As the attack hit Rygar Mystery looked rather angry, Mystery flew into the air and after spinning through the air crashed into Grelo’s stomach sending it flying out of the arena. 

“Wh-What was that??” Julio said, looking rather shocked

“ It looked like the attack, Belly Plop.” Nayuta said patting Mystery on the head after he ran back to them proudly as he did just win the battle for them. “ He must have learned the attack recently and this was the best chance for him to use it.” 

Julio crouched down and hugged his monster “ You did great buddy.” 

“And you did great to partner.” Daisy cheered “ You were great at commanding your monster in battle, are you sure that was really your first battle?” 

Marlene smiled and placed her hand on Julio’s shoulder “ He’s been studying how to battle for a long time, it really paid off in the end.”

Just then a mysterious voice called from behind Dotty and Petty who had been consoling their monsters. “Hm or a first battle that might have just been first time luck.”

Dotty and Petty stepped away revealing a woman wearing a large scarlet cloak and a blue veil over her face, Under the cloak she wore what looked like a very fancy blue jumpsuit.

“Hey don’t be rude.” Nayuta yelled at the woman “ Who even are you?”

“My name is Jhuchu, the leader of this contest.” Jhuchu said in a voice so calm it almost sounded emotionless “ And I’m challenging you to a battle double or nothing. You can use three monsters against my two, it won't change the outcome anyway.”

Nayuta folded her arms angrily “ Talk about pushy.” 

Jhuchu gave a cold laugh “ Oh? Did that sound like a request? Because it was an order.” 

Julio stood up as Rygar, Mystery, and Spork who had been sitting on the side lines took their positions on the battlefield “ We don’t have a choice, but I’m sure I can do this.” 

As Julio said this Jhuchu’s monsters, two Joker’s with mechanical masks, arms, and scythe floated in front of her. 

“What are those things??” Marlene said, slightly panicked “ I’ve seen Jokers before but nothing like this”

Jhuchu didn’t answer, instead she pointed at Rygar, The Joker to her left threw it’s mask at Rygar, it hit with incredibly high speed, and power. The hit took down Rygar instantly. After sending him staging off the battlefield. 

Marlene knelt down to make sure Rygar was ok. “ That attack did some serious damage.” Marlene looked up rather scared “ Those things are terrifying” 

Julio grit his teeth “ Mystery use Ice Boom take them down.” 

Mystery raised his hands to form the ice attack. Jhuchu simply snapped, the mouth on the Joker’s mask opened and a purple gas was shot out covering both itself and Mystery in the gas. Mystery’s attack went flying out of the gas, missing it’s target. Shortly after Mystery was sent flying out of the gas crashing into Julio causing him to slide back a short distance. 

“Julio are you ok??” Nayuta yelled in a panic. 

“I’m fine, but Mystery his helmet has a crack in it.” Julio sounded almost in tears as he said this “ He looks really hurt too.”

Spork braced itself without anyone’s input. He glared at His two opponents; he seemed like he really wanted to avenge his two allies. It charged forward and leapt into the air using, Spin Sword trying to strike one of the Joker’s only to have his attack avoided. The joker tried to use a scythe attack to take Spork down. Spork used his Phantom ability to narrowly avoid the attack, unfortunately the second Joker was in position to strike Spork sending him flying across the arena ending the battle just like that. 

“How weak, you were such an easy opponent to beat.” Jhuchu placed her hand over her mouth laughing “ You must be horrible embarrassed.” 

“I-i..” Julio stammered holding Mystery in his hand, he was barely holding back his tears 

“L-let’s head back to the tent partner.” Daisy said wanting to get away from the area so they could comfort Julio without Jhuchu rubbing salt into the wound.

“Yes we can tend to the monsters there.” Marlene said motioning for Nayuta to use her magic to send the monsters back to the tent

“Ok” Julio mumbled, still doing his best to hold back his tears

They four quickly returned to the tent. Albert called Gaufre into the other room to tend to the monsters, Julio was sitting in the corner of the room looking down at the goggles he had bought for Mystery. Everyone else stood around him trying to console him. He didn’t seem to hear them for the most part as he hadn’t responded to anything in the past hour.

“Big Bro please don’t be sad.” Tico said tugging at Julio’s sleeve

“ Julio it’s ok please don’t feel down on yourself.” Marlene said, putting her hand on Julio’s shoulder. 

“No It’s not, the town needed Geonyte and I let everyone down.” Julio mumbled, sadness welling up in his voice.

“ No it’s not, that lady was leagues ahead of any of us.” Marlene said, doing her best to try and help him realize it wasn’t his fault “Even if I had been in that battle I would have lost just as fast.” 

“Still My first battle and I let you all down.” Julio didn’t even look up at them as he said this.

“Stop it right now, This is stupid.” Nayuta yelled. “ I know it’s hard losing a battle, but please you lose one battle and you give up on everything?”

Julio looked rather shocked at Nayuta’s tone “Wh-what do you mean, I didn’t just lose I hurt Mystery and I failed to help the town.” 

“A Piroro’s mask can regrow almost overnight, Mystery will be fine, he may have a scar but not any lasting damage” Nayuta retorted folding her arms 

“Hey can I interrupt” Daisy asked, trying to diffuse the tension.

“We don’t have time for your money making schemes Daisy.” Nayuta yelled

“It’s not like that.” Daisy sighed “ I don’t want to work or the factory part time, I do it as a way to get inside info on the factory. I’m part of a group called ‘La Resistance’ It’s led by Bruce the man you met last week. We’ve found a way to get into the factory, but it’s guarded by a mass of really strong monsters.”

“ So you want us to help sneak into the factory?” Marlene asked folding her arms

“Yes, your monsters are strong enough to fight all of them off, and since we couldn’t get Geonyte the normal way this is all we can do.” Daisy looked off to the side awkwardly “ I really didn’t want to have to drag other people into this but Jhuchu caught on to my plan fast and wont let me enter the factor. Probably why she stopped us at the tournament.” 

“We’ll do it.” Marlene said before anyone else could respond. “ And you’re coming with us Julio, I know you don’t feel great emotionally, but I also want to show you that this one loss doesn’t mean you can’t train monsters ever again.” 

Tico smiled “ That’s right Big Bro, you can’t give up now. I know you’ll be a great monster trainer if you just give it more time.” 

At that moment Albert walked into the room “ The monsters are doing great right now Julio, that battle didn’t seem to leave any lasting damage.” 

Julio looked very relieved to hear this “ They’re ok??” 

Albert nodded “ They sustained some pretty heavy hits in that fight, but they recovered rather quickly like most monsters do. Though I’d suggest waiting at least a week before doing any battles like that again.”   
Daisy smiled “ Well that settles it, we can depart to enter the factory in a week.” 

Nayuta sighed “ You really just get straight to the point don’t you Daisy.”

“Of course, we can’t sit around her waiting forever can we?” Daisy smiled “ Plus This gives us another chance to help Grabad right Partner?” She looked at Julio knowing how he was going to respond to this.

“She is right, you were upset that you couldn’t help the town, and now we have a chance to do just that.” Marlene said, looking over at Julio with a semi-smug smile on her face

Julio sighed “You two are right, I’m happy to help in any way I can.” He gave a weak smile “ Let’s go save Grabad.”


	7. Grabad Factory

The day had arrived for them to enter the factory, Daisy had led the group to a sewer entrance off to the side of the factory. Bruce stood at the entrance to keep watch just in case someone came by. Inside the sewer entrance there was a long metal path ahead of them with different types of machinery sticking out in several places, the water lining that ran under the flooring was glowing a bright green, it provided them their only light source.

“This place is a lot different than the town.” Nayuta said, looking around astonished at the area around them.

Marlene nodded “ I’ve never seen a place like this either, I wonder what all of this machinery does.”

Daisy shrugged “ I don’t know, all of this machinery is new to the area.” She looked over at the glowing water along the path “ The water used to glow because of Geonyte production but never this bright.” 

Julio looked down at the water as well “ Do you think something happened to the Geonyte production that happened down here? It’s almost like they’ve been dumping the Geonyte directly into the water.” 

Daisy shrugged yet again while walking further along the path “Maybe, but even so the Geonyte shouldn’t have made the water this bright, They might have done something to the Mock that produces Geonyte for us.” 

Nayuta, who was leading the group, spun around to face Daisy “ Mock? Like the living tree monsters? Aren’t those things extinct.” 

Daisy nodded “ They’re mostly extinct, We use the machinery here to keep him alive, and in return he provides us with Geonyte, but I’m afraid they did something to him.” Daisy folded her arms close to her chest, she looked pretty worried.

Marlene placed her hand on Daisy’s shoulder “If the mock is doing ok when we find him we’ll do our best to save him.” 

Daisy looked up at Marlene and gave her a weak smile. She was about to speak when she realized they had come to a fork in the road. She stepped forward and looked down the two paths. “I’m going to head down the right path, There’s something I need to do. You all go ahead down the left path and I’ll meet you later.” 

Before anyone could react Daisy started sprinting down the right path leaving the three, and spork, alone. They waved goodbye knowing Daisy wouldn’t see it before slowly walking down the path on the left, it didn’t take long for them to find an opening along the path, it had a glass floor with metal strips making a chain link pattern under the glass to give it support. Standing in the center was a Noramon glaring at them. The three stopped and Spork readied for a battle in front of them. Julio and Nayuta stepped back, giving Marlene the space to command the monsters once the battle began. 

Marlene turned and grabbed Julio’s arm and pushed him to where she had been standing a moment ago “ Julio I’m putting you in charge of this. You need to see how well of a leader you can be in battle” 

Julio turned shaking his head no in a panic, but it was too late. The Noramon split off into a Naga and Ducken ready to fight Spork and his two allies which had been summoned to the battle field. Julio had no time to think before he called for Mystery to use Ice Boom. 

Mystery launched the icicle through the air it crashed into the Ducken sending the detachable parts of its body flying, The Naga quickly slithered in Mystery’s direction it’s claws pointed ready to launch a jab attack, but before it could get close enough Rygar charged into it pushing it back away as per Julio’s command. 

At this moment Julio seemed to not really take notice of his actions with how focused he was on the battle, He started playing his accordion which had previously been folded flat against his side. As he played the accordion their monsters seemed to act on their own, Moving into a formation and readying an attack, suddenly Spork vanished and appeared behind the Naga, the blade concealed under his arm stuck out, after a second the Naga collapsed to the ground. 

Marlene gasped “ That’s a new skill, But why did Spork use it, and what’s going on with the monsters their acting like they’re being given commands but Julio isn’t speaking.” 

Nayuta was focused on the battle “ I’m not sure what’s going on either.” The tone in her voice however gave away the fact that she was lying.Marlene was about to say something but was cut off by Julio’s music ending and him cheering.

“We did it guys.” Julio cheered picking up Mystery happily hugging the monster. “ Mystery you did so well, wait here I have something for you.” He put Mystery on the ground and, after a moment of struggling, managed to put the goggles he had purchased on Mystery’s head. 

The Piroro placed his hands on his head before happily leaping around for a bit. Nayuta sent Spork and Rygar back to the tent so Mystery could walk around with them for the time being . 

Marlene placed her hand on Julio’s shoulder “ I told you that you could do this Julio, but what was with the accordion playing?” 

Julio tilted his head confused “ What do you mean? I don’t remember playing my accordion.” 

“ What do you mean you don’t remember, you played a full on symphony in the middle of the battle.” Marlene folded her arms “ This isn’t the time for messing around Julio.” 

Before he could respond Nayuta yelled from a platform that she had run up to while Julio was celebrating and Marlene was talking. She had pressed a button she found and the water in the area started draining revealing a hidden ramp leading down to a path giant metal block that was very obviously blocking a path further into the factory. 

Marlene turned to look up at Nayuta “ We’ll investigate the door and meet you down there.” Nayuta nodded and began her decent back to the platform.   
She reached the platform and paused looking around confused. “ I swear it feels like someone is watching me right now.” She mumbled to herself before shrugging “ It’s probably just my imagination or something.” 

As she said this a Maya and her small owner peaked out from a turn in the path the three had come from. “ We’ll make sure nothing bad happens right Gaufre?” 

Gaure peaked his masked head around the corner “ We shouldn’t be doing this Tico we should go back to the tent.” 

Tico folded his arms “ Fine I’ll do this all alone while you hide in the tent.” 

Gaufre sighed “ Fine I’ll stay, but we don’t get involved in any battles unless needed.” Gaufre was going to say something else but was caught off by a metal grating noise from across the sewer. 

The metal block covering the path to the rest of the sewer had been opened up, revealing a far larger space in the sewer, with two levels, the lower level ended in a wall of churning gears and a steep drop. The upper floor revealed a path of spinning gears that would lead to an even deeper part of the sewer. 

Marlene heard a voice calling from a higher path in the first area. “ Hey I’ll meet you guys at the end of the sewer there’s a path that I can see from here.” Daisy called from above. 

“Thank you for the help.” Marlene yelled back to Daisy before the purple haired mechanic disappeared into the sewer above yet again. 

The three quickly made their way deeper into the second part of the sewer but were quickly halted by Nayuta who had found a large pile of machinery that seemed almost out of place laying in the middle of an incline leading to the next floor, she covered her mouth in shock. 

“ It’s a Hengar.” Nayuta whispered sadly “ Or well it’s the remains of one.” She knelt down placing a hand over the glass capsule that made up a Hengar’s eye 

“ The poor thing.” Marlene said looking over the Hengar remains “ He didn’t deserve to be left like this.” 

Julio knelt down next to Nayuta “ What’s it doing here in a place like this.”

Nayuta sighed “ A Hengar’s body is left behind forever when it dies, all alone, unlike normal monsters that become a disk creating plants around the disk.” She seemed to brush some dust off the top of it’s head, at that moment the Hengar’s eye lit up very faintly like it was holding on to it’s last moments but just barely.

“It’s still alive.” Marlene gasped. Placing her hand over her mouth in shock 

The Hengar beeped before playing a voice clip, the clip was faint but just barely able to be heard “ Thank y-y-y-you for caring.” The audio phased out for a moment “Help H-him” and with that the audio died out the light in the Hengar’s eyes faded. A small butterfly seemed to float out of it, landing on Nayuta’s hand before fading away.

Nayuta wiped a tear from her eye “ Those were his last moments.” 

Marlene also wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes before she placed her hand under her chin thinking “ The Hengar must want us to help the Mock.” She looked over at the gears that led to another path they had stopped spinning after the Hengar had died “ He helped us in his dying moments, he must have been very close to the Mock, but how did he manage to speak like that.” 

Nayuta stood up doing her best to not cry any more. “ The Geonyte must have allowed him to speak, maybe they tried using the Geonyte on him, since he was a robot.” 

Julio had placed his hand over his chest as tears streamed from his eyes, seeing this Hengar’s last moments had really gotten to him. Mystery sat next to him, hugging Julio trying to cheer him up. 

“ They can’t get away with this, If that woman had anything to do with this she needs to be taught a lesson.” Julio managed to say through his tears. 

Nayuta nodded “ Let’s get going then, we need to save that Mock.” 

Marlene nodded as well, holding her hand out to help Julio to his feet. They made their way down the path leading to a large gate like the first, but it was already opened. They slowly walked through and saw four stopped conveyor belts in front of them, the large boxes on it making a path in a straight line. 

“ This doesn’t look normal.” Marlene whispered “ Do you really think the Hengar was able to do all of this for us? He didn’t seem strong enough to do all of this for us.” 

Julio shook his head “ Doesn’t matter, we need to save the Mock and the town, before returning to Bruce who’s still waiting for us at the entrance.” 

Nayuta nodded along to what Julio was saying, the two pressed on, but Marlene stayed behind for a moment, looking at the area around her. “ And where’s Daisy, she should have been able to meet us here.” She shook her head not wanting her worry to stop their progress. She gave a light jog and caught up with Julio and Nayuta who were scaling along train tracks avoiding a small Train with metallic teeth chomping as it rode in circles on its track. 

“ What would a factory need a machine like that for?” Nayuta whispered as the three ran down to the next hallway avoiding the train. “ There’s no need to have something like that in here.” 

“ They’re just wasting the Geonyte making things like that for no reason.” Marlene said watching the train drive along it’s thin path 

Julio and Mystery had walked ahead not listening to Nayuta or Marlene. He entered a long hallway lined with more green liquid, this time it was Geonyte, the Geonyte poured down from openings in the walls, while tree branches intertwined themselves with the several pipes at the end of the hallway, they were all coming from one exit at the other end of the hall. 

“ We’re close.” Julio said walking down the path, walking up to Baja’s jar which was resting at the other end of the hall. Baja sprang up from the jar when Julio placed his hand on it. 

Baja looked disturbed even for a monster of his size. “ I don’t like this place, not at all, but you must free the monster that lies beyond this hall.” 

Marlene nodded before taking a step closer to Baja “ Have you seen anyone else pass through here Baja? Anyone at all?” 

Baja nodded “ From this entrance only one has passed, a girl with purple hair.” 

“ Daisy already came through here?” Nayuta said in shock “ Why didn’t she wait for us?” 

Marlene didn’t wait for an answer, she was already walking into the next room. Nayuta and Julio quickly caught up with her walking into the next room with a mix of caution and panic. 

In the next room a large tree with several pipes sticking out of it rested against a far wall, Infront of it a small creature with long ears and a tail, he was a deep shade of green, looking almost like a goblin, His head was lined with stitches almost like he was Frankenstines monster, he hadn’t taken notice to them yet. 

“ Hehehe, Yes make more Geonyte for us. More, More, More.” The Man said, his voice off putting hard to describe but the sound of his voice was enough to put anyone on edge.

“What is he doing over there.” Julio whispered 

“YOU,” Nayuta yelled “ You’re from Warp aren’t you.” 

Marlene looked at Nayuta confused “ What are you talking about.” 

The man turned around “ Hmmm, to know that name, You must be from Tochica aren’t you. That’s the only way you could know the name of Warp” 

Nayuta took a step forward angrily “ That’s right I’m from Tochica, but that’s not what’s important what are you doing here.” 

The man gave a slow drawn out laugh “ We make weapons here, Disturb the town, fights break out, and then you humans become weaker and weaker the more you fight. Instead of fighting you head on we’ll make you humans fight yourselves.”

Nayuta clenched her fists “We won't let you, we’re going to stop you.” 

The man laughed again “ Oh really? How do you plan on stopping me? The last person who tried that didn’t last very long.” 

Marlene gasped “ What did you do to Daisy?” Marlene looked ready to fight the man herself right there.

He just laughed and snapped his fingers, energy seemed to gather in the air and a purple orb appeared in the air between the group and himself, from that orb Daisy fell onto the ground looking severely hurt. Marlene ran over and helped the weakened Daisy onto her feet. In her hands was a map, a way to get around the security measures they had come across earlier.

“ I thought I could waltz through since we didn’t see any Noramon while going through the entrance.” Daisy said “ I got here and was attacked, it happened so fast I didn’t even know what was going on.” 

Marlene continued to lead Daisy away from the area. “ Doesn’t matter we’ll get you to safety.” 

Nayuta stopped Marlene however. “ Please Marlene we need to stop him, I can’t explain right now but we need to stop him, and save the Mock.” 

Julio nodded “ She’s right we still need to save the Mock.” 

The man laughed “ Well I’d like to see you try, I have a strong monster that’ll stop you feeble humans.” 

Marlene turned around “ Fine you want to fight, We’ll fight. I’ll show you who’s feeble.” 

The man just stabbed back, the tree behind him sprang to life, two indents in its face started glowing and an opening below them let out an incredibly loud howl. 

“What did they do to the Mock.” Daisy groaned “ They turned him into a mindless beast.” 

Nayuta summoned the other two monsters to defend them. The mock let out another howl pointing a pipe that stuck out of its side down at Mystery, steam shot out of the pipe at Mystery. Marlene and Julio both yelled in unison for Mystery to dodge which the monster did, but just barely. 

Marlene looked at Julio “ You command Mystery, I’ll command Spork and Rygar, try doing that accordion thing you did earlier if we need it ok?” 

Julio just nodded before turning to the monsters. He had Mystery use his Ice Boom attack while Rygar used bolt, both attacks hitting the Mock with as much force as they could manage. The Mock didn’t even seem to register the attacks, He just yelled and shook his head, cicadas spread from the leaves on his head launching themselves at his opponents, Spork stepped in front of Mystery using his hidden blades to cut through as many cicadas as he could getting hit several times. Rygar lept to the side doing his best to avoid the cicadas but he was unable to dodge all of them. 

Marlene stepped in front of Julio blocking any stray cicadas from hurting her friend. Julio looked incredibly shocked. “ Marlene? What are you doing? That can’t be safe.” 

Marlene staggered to the side after the maelstrom of cicadas. “ I’ll be fine, This is nothing compared to nearly being set on fire a few months ago. Plus I couldn’t let you get hit, and I know Nayuta and Daisy were a safe distance.” 

“Thank you Mo-I mean Marlene.” Julio said a worried tone lingering in his voice. 

On the battlefield however the Mock wasn’t going to give them time to talk, its fingers launched out stabbing the area around Rygar trapping him. The mock swung it’s other arm slapping into Rygar sending him sprawling to the side. Spork and Mystery ran next to Rygar helping him to his feet. Suddenly without warning the air around the three seemed to glow. 

“It can’t be.” Nayuta said, stepping closer to the battle field “ They’re using a Union attack.” 

“A what?” Julio asked looking at the aura around their monster with intrigue 

“When three monsters have gotten close enough they can channel their anima into a powerful attack.” Nayuta said. “ This could be what we need to stop the Mock.” 

Spork and Mystery formed what looked like a bright circle in the air, Rygar sprinted back with all its speed toward the circle with its Charge attack. He leapt through it and was shot forward with the energy of the circle. He flew like a bullet at the Mock colliding with its chest in a sizable explosion. The Mock let out a scream before it fell back against the wall showing it’s defeat. 

“Wh-What?” The man yelled running in front of the Mock “ They’re so strong.” 

Suddenly a voice rang from the shadows the man was hiding in seconds ago. “ Hmmm seems we have a weakling in our midst.” Out stepped Jhuchu with her arms folded 

“What Jhuchu, They’re really strong trust me.” The man said angrily

“I don’t tolerate weakness Woo.” Jhuchu said her tone colder than usual “ Come, this plan is finished.”   
Woo jogged over to Jhuchu “ Not fair it was going so well too.”

Nayuta stepped forward to stop them, but Jhuchu raised her arm and a purple orb surrounded them making the two vanish into thin air.

Julio ran over to Nayuta while Marlene helped Daisy stand up from her position of resting on the wall. “Nayuta don’t you think it’s time, I don’t know, maybe that you told who those people were.” 

Nayuta looked to the ground “They’re people of warp, they’re neither human nor monster. They come from another world entirely.” She paused folding her arms, she was noticeably afraid “ They tried to rid the world of all life many, many, years ago. They have sworn themselves as enemies to the human world.” 

Marlene, Daisy and Julio all yelled in unison “ WHAT??”

Nayuta looked over at the Mock, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. “ I’m from an ancient culture, one that’s destined to stop the people of warp. I’m a shrine maiden from Tochica.” 

“Ancient civilization?” Marlene questioned

“Another world?” Daisy continued

“Hang on Nayuta.” Julio said with confusion in his voice “ This is a lot to process, I’m not sure I’m following this all that well.” 

Suddenly the Mock began to move yet again, everyone braced themselves for round two but instead the Mock began to speak. “ Shrine maiden of Tochica,,,,, One who plays the anima recorder,,,, Girl closest to the key,,,, and the Mechanic girl who used to visit me,,,, Please stop those people.” and with that the Mock dropped again lifeless this time.   
Daisy looked stunned “No,No,No, he didn’t take enough damage for this to happen,” She ran over to the Mock pushing it’s root trying to wake it up. “ What did they do to him? He can’t be gone, he can’t” Daisy burst into tears, still pushing the root still trying to awaken the Mock. Marlene walked next to her and pulled the now sobbing Daisy into a hug doing her best to comfort her while Julio and Nayuta stepped away giving the two some space.

“Nayuta what did the Mock mean? What’s an Anima recorder?” Julio asked as Nayuta sent all three of their monsters back to the tent with her magic. 

“It’s your accordion, Like I told you when we met it was made by my Tochican ancestors. It has more power than just talking to monsters however, It was made with the purpose of helping us save the world from the people of Warp” She paused “ Let’s go back to the tent before I continue. I want to have everyone else hear this.” 

Meanwhile in the other hallway, Tico and Gaufre sat watching the group. Tico was crouched next to his Maya mumbling “ Those people look like me, am I bad? I don’t want to be Nayu’s enemy.”

Gaufre turned to Tico “ Are you ok Tico?” Gaufre knelt down trying to comfort Tico. Tico brushed Gaufre’s hand away instead he just started walking away to leave the Factory. 

Back at the tent Nayuta had gathered everyone in the meeting room to tell them what she had spoken about in the Factory, Daisy and Marlene had their wounds treated, and Tico hadn’t spoken since they had returned. 

“ Everyone I need to tell you something.” Nayuta took a deep breath “I’m from a place called Tochica, it’s our job to stop the people of a place called Warp, we use out magic to invent the summoning of monsters and anima recorders to communicate with them in a way. The Warp world tried to end the world with an incredibly strong monster called Moo, The Tochican people one, but only barely.” 

Albert placed his hand on his chin thinking “ This is all very hard to believe Nayuta.” 

“I know but I’m not done yet.” She said softly “I was sent on a mission to find an engraved key somewhere in Campana, I was scared to go alone which is why I joined all of you.” 

Albert nodded “ That must be an incredibly large burden for one person. Especially someone so young.” 

Nayuta nodded “ I need to do this to stop the people of Warp, they’re back on this planet, we fought them in the factory and I need to key before I can even hope to stop them. That’s why I need to go to Campana.” 

Marlene nodded “ Unfortunately she’s right, these people are real, and are incredibly scary.” Marlene looked over at Daisy “ We need to go to Campana and get this key, as much as I don’t want to go, we need to go.” 

Albert nodded “ Well since we’ve been refueled we can head there next week. After we say goodbye and thank Bruce and Daisy of course.” 

Bruce who had been sitting in the room silently “ No need to thank us, you fine people are the true heroes here.” 

Daisy slowly stood up groaning as her injuries stung “ I’m coming with you all.” The whole room turned to look at her in shock. Bruce nearly fell out of his chair upon hearing this.

“ What do you mean Daisy?” Bruce asked “ What about our shop.” 

“I’m sorry Bruce, but I can’t let these people of Warp get off with what they did that easy, They hurt so many people and monsters and I won't sit back and let them do this anymore.” Daisy turned to face Marlene “I want to help put a stop to what they’re doing.” 

Albert nodded “ We’ll be happy to have you join us if that’s really what you want, but I don’t think Bruce will be happy about it.” 

Bruce sighed “ There’s no talking her out of it.” He walked over to Daisy and placed his hand on her shoulder “ You’ve got this Daisy, I’ll take care of the shop until you return. Just promise you won’t get too hurt out there.” 

Daisy smiled “ I promise Bruce, and you better take good care of the store ok?” 

Bruce smiled “ I promise kiddo.” He placed his hand on her head jokingly 

While this was going on Nayuta had walked over to Tico placing her hand on his shoulder, “ Are you ok Tico you don’t look too good.” 

Tico almost started crying on the spot “ I saw them in the factory, those people. They looked like me.” He took a deep breath in a feeble attempt to calm down. “ I don’t want to hurt you Nayu, I don’t want to be your enemy. You’re the first people to make me part of their family and I don’t want to lose you.” 

Nayuta knelt down and hugged Tico “ I promise you aren’t my enemy Tico, I know you would never hurt anyone here on purpose, Just because you’re from that world doesn’t mean that you’ll want to hurt someone.” Nayuta paused thinking “ I’m sorry, what I said didn’t sound right, I can’t judge everyone from the world of Warp just because of what two people have done, that wasn’t right of me.” 

Tico hugged Nayuta back “ Thank you for being here for me Nayu, and you’re right, just because someone is from Warp doesn’t make us bad people. I’m sure whoever my parents are, aren’t bad people either.” 

Nayuta broke the hug and nodded at Tico, “ You’re right I’m sure your real parents are good people too, hopefully we’ll meet them on the way.” 

After that the troupe got ready to leave Grabad, and make their way to Campana, with a new member in their ranks they were able to pack up faster than usual, Tico hoping to meet his real parents on their journey. Marlene on the other hand hadn’t been as excited about packing up and leaving Grabad to go to Campana. The hours before they were set to leave Gaufre, Marlene, and Albert sat together talking. 

“ Marlene are you ok?” Gaufre asked, noticing Marlene’s concerned look. 

“I know I said I could go to Campana, but I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I can go back. Not after all this time.” Marlene said, sounding very worried. 

“ It’ll all be fine Marlene don’t worry, If he comes for us all of us will protect you.” Albert said, in a comforting tone.

She looked up at Albert “ I hope you’re right, Gaufre might be our only defence in that case.” 

“Wh-what me?” Gaufre asked, a little panicked.

“With your strength it wouldn’t be a problem.” Albert said, holding his calming voice

“All we can do is wait and see” Marlene mumbled. Still not looking forward to going to Campana. 

And with that the group finished packing and set off for Campana, ready to search for this key Nayuta spoke about, she hoped it would be easy to find since it was supposed to be in the castle of Campana, One thing she hadn’t figured out however Why did Mock refer to Marlene as the girl closest to the key? And what was Daisy’s connection to the Mock? She hoped Campana would provide the answers to these questions too.


	8. Welcome to Campana

After three days of traveling the troupe had finally arrived in Campana, the capital was a bright place, despite the several tall and unique buildings that lined the streets of Campana nothing matches the grandeur of the castle in the center of the capital, it’s white walls seemed to reflect the sunlight giving off the illusion of glowing to anyone who looked at it. The troupe had set up their tent just a short ways away from the castle, although no one seemed to take notice of the tent, they simply passed the tent and went about their days happily shopping in the large square that stood in between the tent and the castle. 

“Wow, this place is amazing,” Daisy said, looking around in awe. “ I’ve heard about how grand Campana is, but the stories don’t do it justice.”

Nayuta wordlessly nodded, she had been looking around in awe at everything they passed in Campana for nearly an hour at that point. Julio and Tico had been doing the same for almost the same amount of time. 

Albert chuckled “ Campana is a grand place, even having been here before it’s still breathtaking to see the castle in person like this.” 

Gaufre gave a nervous laugh “ Y-yeah it’s been a long time since we’ve been here.” Gaufre was constantly looking around, he nearly fell over when a person he hadn’t noticed walked by when they were setting up the tent. “ I just hope this doesn’t end like it did last time.” 

Albert sighed “ I don’t think it’ll end like that again, but what happened that night might come back to haunt us.” 

Daisy looked over at Albert curiously “ What do you mean? What happened last time you were here?”

“It doesn’t matter now though I think it’s best for me and Gaufre to stay in the tent with Marlene.” Albert said motioning for Gaufre to follow him into the tent.

“Is Marly not going to come out and see the city?” Tico asked still not taking his eyes off the castle 

Marlene’s voice called from just behind the entrance flap of the tent “ I know I said I’d come but I can’t do it, I’m not going to go out there.” 

“Marlene what about, what we’re looking for? Don’t you want to help find it?” Nayuta asked as she walked over to the tent. 

“ I’m sure you and Julio can find it alone, Julio has really improved battling since then and I’m sure he’ll do well in helping find it.” Marlene called in what almost sounded like panic, this was followed by the sound of her quickly walking away from the entrance to the tent. 

Turning around Nayuta saw a castle guard walking down the steps, she was about to ask Albert something but both him and Gaufre had quickly retreated into the tent as well. The Guard walked over to the group that was still outside of the tent looking around quickly before he spoke.  
“I see you are all part of this circus.” He said calmly before his voice hushed into a whisper “ I suggest your troupe is careful around here, the king doesn’t take kindly to circus performers like yourselves.” 

“Why? There’s nothing wrong with a circus.” Julio said angrily, folding his arms. 

“ No one’s sure why, but he’s hated every circus that’s passed through here for many years,” The Guard looked around nervously again “ Just don’t do anything too big, he’s not afraid to banish anyone from Campana.” 

“What?? Banish?” Daisy said in shock. “ He hated the circus so much that he’s willing to banish people?” 

The guard nodded “Just play it safe, that’s all I can say, now I need to get going. If anyone sees me here I could get in some serious trouble” The guard said as he turned and walked away, leaving the four to let this new information fully sink in. 

“Well this causes a few problems for us.” Nayuta sighed “ How are we going to get into the castle to find the key now? I doubt the king will let performers like us anywhere near the castle.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see I guess. Maybe an opportunity will present itself, that’s what’s happened in the past two towns.” Julio said, folding his arms “ We’ll just have to hope we have some luck on our side yet again.” 

Daisy sighed “ We’ve come all this way just to have our plan derailed almost right away.” She looked at the ground angrily “ This sucks.” 

Tico pouted and stomped his foot “ I can’t believe the king is such a mean person.” 

Nayuta gave a small smile “ I’m sure we’ll find a way around this problem, We always seem to.” 

Daisy nodded “You’re right we shouldn’t let this get us down.” She looked at the tent with a small smile “If you guys could save Grabad in a matter of days when we were struggling for weeks I’m sure you can get into the castle no problem, regardless of if the king lets you or not” 

“Yeah she’s right.” Tico agreed “ I lived in that forest for as long as I can remember, just me and my monster mom. No humans or monsters wanted me around until you all came along. You guys have done so much for me and I know this won't slow you guys down. This troupe is full of so many strong people, we can fight our way even if we need to.” 

Julio chuckled “ Well maybe not fight our way in, I don’t think the seven of us and our monsters could take on the king’s entire guard force.” He paused for a moment “ I’ve heard tales of how strong they are, the head guard is so strong he makes even the Mock we fought in Grabad look like a normal noramon.” 

“Don’t talk about Mock like that, it’s rude.” Daisy said sharply “ Mock may not have been strong in a battle but that doesn’t warrant him being referred to as a noramon like that.”

“Hey Daisy I’ve been meaning to ask, How did you become so close to Mock?” Nayuta asked, “ You don’t have to answer, I’ve just been wondering is all” 

“My dad used to work in the factory, He would bring me and my brother along sometimes. Well one day I found a path down to where they kept Mock.” Daisy gave a sad sigh “ And that’s how I met Mock.”

“I’m sorry we weren’t able to save him.” Julio said, placing his hand on Daisy’s shoulder “ I promise we’ll avenge him in some way, when we get the chance.” 

Daisy smiled, doing her best not to show the tears forming in her eyes, while Tico ran over to hug her “ Thanks, that means a lot Julio, and thank you Tico for the hug.” 

This touching moment was cut short by Albert, poking his head out of the Tent entrance, “ I’m sorry if I’m interrupting something important, but can I ask a favor real quick.” 

Daisy chuckled, pulling away from Tico, “ Yeah, what do you need Albert?” 

Albert held out a paper “ Some of our monsters are feeling a bit under the weather, would you guys mind bringing in a Lorox and the other medicine on this list? We have some in the tent but you can never be too short on medicine for the monsters.” Albert said doing his best not to be seen by the people who had started passing by

Julio nodded and grabbed the paper from Albert and looked it over, “ Me and Tico can do some shopping.” Julio turned to Nayuta and Daisy, “ Meanwhile Nayuta you can go look at monsters to get for Daisy.” He pointed at a part of the list noting that they should look into a monster for Daisy to raise. 

“A monster for me?” Daisy almost sputtered out of surprise, “ You guys don’t have to do that.” 

Nayuta chuckled “ We don’t have to, but we really want to.” Nayuta said happily, “ Plus we have a voucher for 50% of a monster purchase, we can use the extra to get snacks or something.” 

Daisy gave a small smile “ Alright, but if we get food you’re buying it.” 

With that Nayuta and Daisy walked into the large square separating the tent and the castle, waving goodbye to Julio and Tico who hurried off to do chores of their own. Daisy already having her mind set on what kind of monster she wanted, walked to the monster shop eagerly.


	9. A New Task

Daisy and Nayuta made their way into the monster shop in Campana, a large building with several grey disks that held monsters lining the walls. The woman that sat behind the counter gave them a small wave. She had been polishing a disk in her spare time waiting for customers to come in.

“Hey there, My name’s Stella please ask me if you need anything.” Stella said as she placed the disk back on the wall behind her. Taking a moment to smile at how nice the wall looked with all the disks having been polished. 

“Wow I’ve never seen a monster shop this clean.” Nayuta remarked noticing how the disks that lined the walls were almost mirrors; they were so clean. 

Stella chuckled “Yeah King Marche used to check in on stores himself to make sure we kept up a clean practice, I guess it just stuck with me after a while.” 

“Used to? Did he stop coming by?” Nayuta asked curiously 

“ It’s been a few years since he’s done an inspection. Not sure why ,but I’m sure he’s got more important things to do.” Stella said, shrugging. She looked over at Daisy who had picked up a disk already. “ Oh I see you’ve already chosen a monster, place it on the counter and I’ll get an engraving tool so you can name it.” 

Daisy placed this disk on the counter as Stella disappeared into the back of the store for a brief moment only to return with what she had called an engraving tool, It looked similar to a chisel but seemed different somehow.

“ Alright what would you like to name the monster?” Stella asked as she positioned the disk so she could engrave it. 

“I’d like to name it Mock.” Daisy said, ignoring the ‘Aww’ Nayuta gave upon hearing the monster’s name.

Stella engraved the disk and handed it back to Daisy, before turning to take the money Nayuta was giving to her. “ Thank you, have a nice day.” Stella said before turning to return the engraving tool to the back of the store.

Daisy and Nayuta left the store together. Daisy clutched the disk smiling looking at the name she had given the monster.

“What kind of monster is it?” Nayuta asked, looking over Daisy’s shoulder at the disk

“It’s a Coconutty, a Plant and Hengar mix.” Daisy said, not fully looking away from the disk. “ It’s my way of remembering the Mock and the Hengar that we couldn’t save in Grabad.” 

“That’s very kind of you Daisy, I’m sure both of those monsters would be honored.” Nayuta said, smiling at Daisy. 

“ I’m honored to keep their memory alive.” Daisy said “ Anyway what was that about you getting food for us earlier?” Daisy finished as she did her best to change the mood to a more light hearted one.

Nayuta chuckled “ Oh you still remember that, Well we can stop by that fancy looking store, the one by the tent.”  
“We should hurry though, I imagine Albert wants us back in the tent soon.” Daisy called, power walking to the store that Nayuta had chosen. 

The two walked over the the store, looking up at the large wooden sign about the entrance labeled ‘ Meg’s General goods’, there were several tables around the front of the story, only one was occupied, the one closest to the door sat a girl with red hair pulled up into two buns, she was looking through what looked like a deck of cards. Across from her was a white bag with a blue and white hat on top of it, holding the seat of whoever had been sitting there before. Nayuta gave a small wave to the girl as they were walking up to the store with Daisy, the girl seemed too focused on her cards to return the wave from Nayuta. 

Daisy opened the door for Nayuta but before Nayuta could walk into the store Julio and Tico came running up to them. Julio looked to be in a panic, but was too out of breath to say anything as he motioned for Tico to speak for him. 

Tico looked worried as he spoke “ A man saying he was the leader of the castle guards, just went into the tent.” Tico started tugging on Nayuta’s sleeve urging her to follow him “ We might be getting in trouble.” 

Daisy and Nayuta shared a glance before they began to sprint down the walkway back to the tent, nearly leaving the out of breath Julio behind. The group flew through the entrance to the tent running so fast that the entrance flap flew open as they ran through it. As they ran to the meeting room they could hear what sounded like Marlene shouting. Hearts pounding they quickly opened the door to the meeting room to find Marlene angrily talking with an older looking man.

“ How did you find me?” She asked, pointing a finger in his face angrily. 

“You knew it wouldn’t take long for me to find you, I’m not called the Radar of Marche for nothing.” The man said, his tone was calm and kind, he didn’t seem like a castle guard at all, more like a kind grandfather.

“Great, I can imagine you told him too?” Marlene said, her angry tone sounding slightly fearful. “Do you realize what that could mean for my friends?” 

“Oh no, I would never do that, I am also the secret keeper of Marche you know.” The man chuckled. “ I wouldn’t put you in danger like that my princess.” 

“Princess??” Nayuta couldn’t stop herself from saying “That’s a bit creepy to say, please just leave Marlene alone.” 

Marlene sighed “ Nayuta wait that’s not what he-” She however was cut off by the man quickly turning around to face Nayuta. 

“How dare you refer to her by just ‘Marlene’, You would do well to refer to her by her full name, Marlene M. Marche.” He almost shouted, his tone somehow sounded scary despite his attitude before. 

“Uncle please stop, I’m no princess.” Marlene said, placing a hand on her forehead looking embarrassed. 

“But I’ve served you since you were born, how can I refer to you with anything but Princess.” The man chuckled, his tone becoming calm and kind yet again. 

Albert stepped forward with a look of nervousness on his face “ It’s been a while Lambert.” Albert paused for a moment “ I must ask, are you certain that the king doesn’t know we’re here?” 

Lambert smiled “ Of course he doesn’t, You know you can trust me Albert I was the one who opened the gates for you that night.” 

Marlene looked between Albert and Lambert “ Lambert you helped us that night? Why? Do you know what could have happened if father found out what you did?” 

Lambert gave a sad smile “ I know what will happen to me when he learns of my actions. However I was not going to simply sit back while he took those actions.” 

Marlene looked worried yet angry at the same time “ You shouldn’t have done that, I made my choice and you shouldn’t have gotten involved.” She paused for a moment noticing the confused looks on Julio, Nayuta, Tico, and Daisy’s faces “ Please just give us a few moments alone Uncle. I should discuss this with my friends” 

Lambert gave a bow to Marlene before making his way out of the meeting hall. He swung his cane over his arm smiling as he made his way past the small group standing near the entrance to the tent. He smiled at them before leaving the meeting room. 

After a moment Nayuta looked over at Marlene “ What was all of that? I’m so confused? Are you really a princess?” 

Marlene sighed “ It’s not what you think Nayuta.” 

Albert stepped next to Marlene “ I’ll tell them Marlene don’t worry.” He turned to look at the small group as Gaufre walked over to comfort Marlene as well “ Many years ago, when the circus was just me and Gaufre we came to perform for the king.” Albert looked over at Gaufre who nodded 

“ That night Marlene came to us and told us to take us with her, said she’d tell her father we had stolen from her if we didn’t” Gaufre said, his tone was sad as he spoke

“Wait so you asked a circus to kidnap you?” Daisy exclaimed, sounding both shocked and slightly impressed “ That’s kinda cool.” 

Marlene shook her head “It’s not like that.” She took a breath trying to calm down sounding shaken up as she spoke “ My father never cared about me, I was just another bargaining chip to him. I left because he only cared about his status and his government, so much so that he was going to force me to marry a man I didn’t even know.” 

Daisy gasped “ I’m so sorry, I had no idea the king was that kind of person.” 

“What he did doesn’t matter now. Our mission now is to get into the castle, and while I might not be able to help I know someone who can.” Marlene said doing her best to sound confident.

Without hesitation Lambert stepped back into the room, He had obviously been listening to what everyone had been saying, He stepped toward Marlene bowing again before he started speaking. 

“ I would gladly help you gain access to the castle princess but may I ask why?” Lambert said as he leaned against his cane

“We need to see the key.” Marlene said right away “ I don’t know all the details but we’ve met people from a place called Warp and Nayuta says we need to find it in the castle before we can stop them.” 

Lambert turned to face Nayuta who had stepped forward when Marlene said her name. “Ah you’re an heir of the Tochikan culture yes?” 

Nayuta looked a bit taken back “ You know about Tochika?” 

Lambert chuckled “ Of course they don’t call me the Encyclopedia of Marche for nothing.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper that looked like an invitation “ There’s a tournament going on next week, whoever wins is allowed to go into the castle. You all arrived at the perfect time.” 

Nayuta slowly took the invitation from him “ Thank you this is going to help us a great deal.” 

Lambert smiled and began to leave the room “ I’ve done all I can for now, I wish you all the best, and princess your secret's safe with me.” 

Marlene waved goodbye to Lambert “ While he’s too devoted to serving my father, Uncle isn’t a bad guy.” She gave a small smile before turning to Nayuta and Julio who were looking over the invitation “ Well, looks like you’ll get a second chance at a tournament Julio.” 

Julio looked shocked “ Wh- Me??” He was going to ask why but then he realized “ Oh right, you can’t leave the tent can you?” 

Marlene shook her head “ Nope, I’m not risking my father seeing me or finding me here” 

Daisy walked next to Julio who looked rather nervous “ You’ve got this Julio.” 

Tico ran over to stand in front of Julio, he smiled up at him “ I know you’ve got this Big Bro. Here if you need a lucky charm take this.” Tico handed Julio a small flower, upon closer inspection the flower was actually made of crystals.

“Whoa this is a crystal flower.” Julio said, gently holding the flower out of fear of breaking it.

“Don’t worry about breaking it, it’s super strong, and my monster mom gave it to me when I lived in the forest.” Tico smiled up at Julio beaming with pride. 

“I can’t take this Tico, it means so much to you.” Julio said, crouching and holding his hand out to give it back to Tico.

“ Please Big Bro. I want you to hold onto it for luck during that battle.” Julio said, pouting at Julio almost guilting Julio into agreeing

“ Ok I’ll hold onto it, but after this tournament I’m giving it right back ok?” Julio asked, smiling at Tico

Tico’s smile immediately returned “ Yay. I know when you have my lucky flower you’re going to do great Big Bro.” 

Julio smiled, “Well I guess I should get to training right? Can’t rely on luck alone.” 

With that Julio and Tico walked off into the monster’s room, Tico gleefully talked about how he was given the flower and how pretty it looked when in the sun. Nayuta and Daisy slowly followed Nayuta remembering she had to summon the monster that Daisy had purchased earlier that day 

Marlene folded her arms “ I’m sure he’ll do great, at least I hope so because if this doesn’t work we don’t have any other way to get into the castle.” 

Gaufre stepped next to her “ He’ll do good. We need to have faith in him.” 

Albert nodded “He’s grown so much since we left Colno, I don’t think anyone could stop him when he really puts his mind to it” Albert chuckled “ Julio won’t go down without a fight.” 

Marlene sighed “I know, but I hate putting all this pressure on him.” She sat back in the seat she had taken before. “ But you guys are right, Julio may not realize it, but he’s a strong monster trainer. He may even rival Lambert.” Marlene chuckled 

Albert smiled “ Let’s just hope Lambert isn’t also competing in that tournament.” 

Albert, Marlene, and Gaufre laughed before turning to return to their daily regimen, or the best that they could manage while being confined to the inside of the tent. While the thought of the tournament lingered over everyone’s heads they pushed through their days making sure they were going to win it regardless of their opponents.


	10. Marche's Tournament

It was the morning of the tournament, Nayuta and Daisy took Julio to the store they had planned to get snacks from a week prior. They sat at a table inside the store, having Julio drink a tea that was supposed to be calming so he wouldn’t be too stressed in two hours when the tournament started. The woman that ran the store would check in on their table and make small talk when the store wasn’t too busy. Like the store’s name suggested her name was Meg, but unlike the store’s name said her store also doubled as a small coffee store.

Julio was drinking his second cup of tea by then. His nerves were through the roof, but he was doing his best to not let that show, Daisy and Nayuta exchanged worried glances every few minutes while Julio silently finished his tea. 

“Hey Julio you know it’s going to be ok right?” Daisy asked, looking at Julio worriedly “You’ve been stressed all day but I know you have nothing to worry about.”

Nayuta nodded “ She’s right Julio, I’ve seen what you can do when battling with monsters, you have nothing to worry about Julio.”

Julio nodded slowly, it was obvious he didn’t fully believe what they were saying however “ I know, I’m just so worried we’ll have a repeat of the tournament in Grabad.” 

Daisy sighed “ Julio that loss wasn’t your fault, Jhuchu was way stronger than anyone could have anticipated, and the monsters had already been tired out after the battle with Dotty.” 

“Yeah Julio she’s right, and she shouldn’t be anywhere in Campana, It’s far too guarded for the people of Warp to do anything here.”Nayuta said reassuringly. 

Julio gave a small smile “ I know, but I’m so scared one of our monsters might get hurt,” 

The woman running the store made her way over to the three “ Hey I heard you three talking about the tournament. You three should probably head over to the battlegrounds right about now.” Meg smiled “ King Marche doesn’t like when people make him wait.” 

Daisy nodded “ Thank you, We’ll head out now.” She handed Meg the money for the tea and other food they had ordered. The three made their way out of the store but were stopped when the woman called for them.

“ It’s not much but I’d like you to take this.” Meg held out a red ribbon with golden accents along the edges “Give it to one of your monsters before the battle, I know It’ll help in a pinch.” 

She handed the ribbon to Julio who looked shocked as he slowly took the ribbon from her, “ Wow this ribbon looks amazing, I’ve never seen a battle item with detail put into it like this.” 

Meg smiled “ Thank you, I made it myself. I accidentally made it a battle item when I was trying to make a gift for my girlfriend.” She chuckled “ But that’s besides the point you three should get going.” 

Julio thanked her again as the three made their way to the tent to get their monsters ready for the battle, Julio gave the ribbon to Marlene who tied it like a collar on Rygar. Rygar looked excited to be given a gift as Marlene put the ribbon on him, and with that the three set off for the tournament, Marlene giving Julio a small pep talk before he left the tent. 

They made their way to the battlegrounds, Julio feeling almost sick with how nervous he was at the moment, with each step he took the pit in his stomach grew. He clutched onto the flower Tico had given him, the thought of his Little brother’s faith in him seemed to drive some of the doubts from his mind. Once they had finally reached the battlegrounds however, all that doubt quickly left Julio’s mind as they were greeted by a familiar face.

“Well, well, well Look who we have here?” Dotty called “ Our snow haired friend and his two accomplices” 

“Dotty? What are you doing here?” Nayuta asked “ Are you going to be our opponent?” 

Dotty laughed “ Well like Villain rule # 2445 says “Strike first to win the prize, so me and Petty are here to get into the castle before you can.” 

His confident demeanor disappeared quickly however as Petty spoke “ But that didn’t go well, The Leader of this tournament is really strong, before we even knew what was happening we lost.” 

Daisy gave a worried glance to Nayuta before speaking “ Who was your opponent?” 

Neither of the Violet cats could respond however as another familiar laugh rang from behind the two ‘villains’. “Well they faced me of course.” The voice called, the two infront of him parted to show Lambert standing on the other side of the field, three monsters in front of him ready to battle. 

Nayuta gave a worried chuckle before whispering “ Maybe he’ll go easy on us.” 

Lambert laughed “ Oh of course not, I would never go easy on any opponent, to do so would be to dishonor my title as the Terror of Marche” 

Daisy looked a little shocked “ What you know how important this is and you won’t even give holding back a second thought?” She paused “ Also how many titles do you have here?” 

Lambert smiled “ I am the most Titled man of Marche” His opponents shook their heads “ And regardless let us begin our battle, king Marche does not like to be kept waiting.” Lamber gestured to a man wearing several large and expensive pieces of clothing, but all of that looked drab compared to the crown adorned on top of his head. 

Julio hardly had time to admire the king’s crown however as Lambert’s Durahan and his Durahan mixed Mocchi and Golem had already launched their attack. The Mocchi rolling into Mystery knocking the Piroro back. Spork used his tail lash attack like a baseball bat however and sent the Mocchie flying into the Golem causing both to stumble for a moment. The Golem quickly recovered and launched a Tornado attack on Julio’s monsters. Only Rygar was able to dodge the attack as he launched a bolt attack on the Mocchie dealing enough damage to knock out the Mocchi just as Mystery was taken out by the Golem’s tornado. 

Lambert chuckled “ My, My you’re stronger than I anticipated. I guess I’ll just have to finish you off faster then.” Lambert innocently smiled and snapped his fingers. 

Lambert’s Durahan launched itself forward and shoulder bashed Spork sending the Ripper flying, Spork didn’t have any time to retaliate as the Golem launched his fist down from above, smashing Spork into the ground. This knocked out Spork leaving Rygar alone to face Lambert’s two monsters all on his own. 

Julio looked over at his two knocked out monsters and back at Rygar, “ We’re completely outmatched. Guys I don’t think I can do this.” 

Nayuta was about to say something as the Golem moved in front of Rygar readying his fist to strike Rygar, but before he could Rygar let out an incredibly loud howl. The Golem stumbled back, it’r rocky expression turning to one of fear almost.

Before anyone could react Rygar launched his attacks without hearing a command from Julio. Rygar led with his charge attack knocking the Golem over before clawing at the Golem, his claws creating slash marks on the Golem’s rocky body, with that the Golem was taken out of the first. Rygar looked pleased but Lambert took this moment of celebration to launch a surprise attack. He snapped his fingers and his Durahan kicked Rygar with a large amount of force sending Rygar flying several feat away. 

“Tsk Tsk youngster, I thought you would know better than to let your monster take a moment to celebrate in the middle of a battle like that.” Lambert pointed his cane forward and the Durahan launched itself at Rygar with immense speed. 

The Durahan pointed it’s sword and slashed at Rygar who was barely able to dodge the attack. Rygar immediately launched his bolt attack sending lightning flying from his horns at the Durahan. The Durahan swung it’s sword sending a green aura flying at Rygar, both attacks collided causing both to explode with a large amount of force. Through the smoke the Durahan charged at Rygar again, it used a turn slash attack it’s dull blade colliding with Rygar sending him flying to the side, and with that Rygar dropped to the ground knocked out. 

Tears formed in Julio’s eyes as he looked over at Rygar. Lambert seemed ready to run over and hug Julio, a look of great worry in his eyes, Nayuta had her hand pressed over her mouth in shock and Daisy sat crouched on the ground doing her best not to show her shock as she tended to Spork and Mystery’s wounds. The referee to the battle was even a bit shocked, more so that Lambert was brought down to one monster. He raised his hand to call Lambert’s victory when something happened. 

A ring of energy surrounded Rygar, and the monster slowly began to stand up. Rygar’s new ribbon seemed to blow the same color as the energy circle surrounding him. The Audience watching the battle went silent, even the Durahan took a step back in surprise.

“That’s Final Guts.” Nayuta mumbled in shock “ A skill that only works sometimes in a battle, it allows a monster to recover just a small amount, so the monster can continue it’s battle.” 

Rygar didn’t wait for a command again, sending a bolt attack at the Durahan who was stunned by Rygar’s recovery still. The Durahan took the attack and slid back as the lightning collided with it. Rygar took no time in waiting knowing a single hit could knock it out again. Rygar used charge with all it’s might crashing into the Durahan sending the suit of armor flying out of the set battle field while also knocking it out. This time the battle was truly over. 

Lambert made his way across the field and held out his hand for Julio to shake, Julio shook Lambert’s hand, tears of happiness streaming down his face, Lambert smiled, and offered Julio a hug, which Julio took without even thinking. 

“You did great.” Lambert said, with a soft smile as Julio cried into his shirt. 

Nayuta turned away covering her face to hide her tears from those around her, while the king came walking onto the field holding his invitation to the castle to give Julio while the crowd cheered and holored, confetti raining from the sky as guards threw it to celebrate. The king was about to hand the invitation to Julio as Dotty and Petty ran back onto the field. 

“Hold it,” Dotty yelled “ This group is disqualified, as they’re part of the circus.” 

The crowd silenced almost right away, the king’s face grew red with anger “ YOU DISGRACE THIS TOURNAMENT WITH YOU’RE TRICKERY HOW DARE YOU.” 

Petty laughed “ Here’s villain rule #43422 When other people have a happy moment stamp on it right away.” 

Julio backed away from the king as Nayuta used her magic to return the monsters to the tent. The king called the guards who quickly ran down to arrest the three. However Lambert quickly led everyone away from the battle field, fending off the guards with his cane, even for his age Lambert held his own against several guards alone. Taking all of them out with ease as he allowed the trio to escape. He turned and bid them farewell as he was slowly surrounded by guards. 

They quickly ran to the tent, where they were greeted by Marlene who looked at them with a smile that quickly faded when she saw the looks on everyone’s faces.

“What happened?” She asked “ Did you lose? Who did you fight?” 

Daisy looked over her shoulders in fear “ We won but Dotty told the king we were part of the circus, and now they want to arrest us” 

Marlene’s expression dropped into one of fear. “ This isn’t good, what are we going to do? Dad’s going to find me and force me to join him again. Who knows what’s going to happen to you guys. What about Uncle?” 

“I’ll be fine” Lambert called from the entrance to the room, causing everyone to jump “ But I have bad news. The king is coming to the tent.” 

Marlene looked terrified “ Oh no”


	11. A Chosen Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter but I wanted to give this scene more importance so having it all as one chapter seemed like the best choice

Marlene paced around the room, everyone else had been told to leave the room except for Marlene and Albert while Lambert led the king into the tent. Marlene looked incredibly nervous while Albert was doing his best to calm her down. 

Lambert walked into the room, leading King Marche into the room with him. “ This way your majesty.” He looked up at Merlene who took a deep breath to hold her composure. 

“So this is where you are Marlene, and that clown from the night you disappeared.” His face went red with anger “ You have some nerve coming around her.” 

Albert looked off to the side not wanting to meet the king’s gaze “ Yes,,,,, I’m sorry.” 

Marlene looked at Albert and back at her father, in an instant she went from worried to angry “ How dare you, They’ve done nothing wrong and you threaten to arrest my friends?” She folded her arms “ All you care about is appearance it shouldn’t matter if someone is in a circus, you’re so self centered to value appearance over people’s jobs” 

“What are you saying?” The king roared “ I was just doing what was best for my kingdom, Just like I did for you when I found the perfect marriage partner for you.” 

“When you really look at it all of this is just for you and what you want.” Marlene took a step forward “ Does anyone know I left? Or did you keep that a seacret to save yourself from the kingdom’s judgement? To save your false honor?” 

“Well I-” The king sputtered in shock of what his daughter was telling him.

“This is what I mean!! You only care about yourself.” Marlene’s hands shook in anger “ This is why I left. This is why I hate you” 

Albert gasped and interjected “ Marlene hold on that’s going a bit far” 

The king glared at her “ Is that how you really feel?” He folded his arms “ Fine, then you are no longer my daughter.” 

“ Fine.” Marlene yelled “ Go ahead and take me out of the family” 

The king turned to leave “ So be it. It’s like I never had a daughter in the first place. That’s how it was for so long anyway.” He began to leave “ Let’s go Lambert, I don’t intend to stay in this filthy hovel and these disgusting peasants” 

Lambert looked a bit upset “ Sir I must say,,” 

The King silenced him with a glare “ I said we’re leaving Lambert, I do NOT want to be seen in this filthy tent.” 

Lambert gave Marlene a worried look as the King forced him out of the tent, Marlene and Albert watched them go, Marlene still looking angrily at the King as he left her sight. 

“Marlene, is this really what you want?” Albert asked, turning to Marlene. “I know you didn’t like him, but is this really how you wanted things to end?”

Marlene slowly looked at Albert “ Of course…” And at that moment the anger disappeared, her eyes welled up with tears in the realization of all that had just happened “ …...It isn’t” 

Albert pulled the now sobbing Marlene into a hug “ It’s going to be ok Marlene. If you don’t have your real family We’ll be a family for you.” 

Marlene pulled away and looked up at Albert, tears still streaming down her face “ B-but what about Lambert, I’ll never see him again.” She did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes as she spoke. “ He raised me, and I’ll never get to see him again. He broke a law to protect us and now he’s alone” 

“We’ll find something Marlene, I promise we’ll find some way to help Lambert, get that key Nayuta needs, and leave Campana forever.” Albert said, reaching out to comfort her.

Marlene stepped away from him “ No Albert you don’t get it.” Her anger from earlier seemed to mix itself into her current sadness “ Just leave me alone, please.” 

Albert was about to speak when Gaufre walked into the room. The large man looked concerned even without being able to see his face through his giant mask Albert could tell how Gaufre felt. 

Gaufre moved over holding out a box of tissues for Marlene before he spoke “ I heard what happened to you Marlene, I’m so sorry.” He sat down next to her doing his best to comfort her “ I know it hurts losing a family member, whether you like them or not, but I also know that we are your family as well and we’ll do everything we can to make you feel better.” 

Albert nodded “ He’s right Marlene we’ve been through thick and thin together, you know we’ll do whatever it takes Marlene.”

Merlene sighed “ But how could we do anything now, If the King see’s any of us again he’ll have us arrested on sight”

Before anyone could respond a woman called from the entrance to the meeting room, “Well I might have a way you can get into the castle”

Marlene looked at the source of the voice in shock, she stood up from the table so fast her chair fell to the floor behind her, “Mom?”


	12. The Marche Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter had to get cut slightly short, as I realized it had gone of for far longer than I wanted it to originally, so It'll be finished next chapter along with the start of a short intermission arc.

Marlene’s mother stepped into the meeting room, She wore a large scarlet cloak over a blue dress. Once she had taken off the hood of her cloak, it revealed long blonde hair similar to Marlene’s. She gave a soft smile to the three that stood before her. 

“I have a way you can get into the castle .” She said, looking around the tent, looking a bit disappointed in where her daughter was living. “ Lambert warned me about your father’s anger before he came here and almost begged me to help.” 

“ Isn’t it dangerous to be out of the castle like this mom?” Marlene asked looking worried at her mom 

Marlene’s mother gave a small smile “ You’ve been outside of the castle this long safely who says I can’t do the same” She folded her arms looking slightly amused “ I also used to work as a dance, I still remember a few self defense techniques from those old days” 

Nayuta poked her head into the room looking worried “Marlene I heard yelling a few minutes ago and I just wanted to make sure everything was ok” She looked over at Marlene's mother and did a double take as she “ Oh I’m sorry I didn’t realize you were here, your highness?” her tone showed that she wasn’t sure if this really was the queen standing before her, but she acted formal just in case.

The queen gave a soft chuckle “Please just call me Selene, I do hate the royal greetings. They get old after so long.” Selene stuck out her hand for Nayuta to shake, “ It is so nice to meet someone from outside of the kingdom that isn’t royalty.” 

Nayuta slowly shook Selene’s hand “I’m Nayuta it’s nice to meet you miss” She paused for a moment, not sure what to do next, before turning to Albert hoping he’d tell her to do something.

Albert nodded “ Nayuta would you mind gathering the others and bringing them here, this is something they should hear too” 

Nayuta nodded and jogged back into the tent to gather the others, It didn’t take her long to do so as everyone else was gathered in front of the entrance room already waiting to see what was going on. Nayuta slowly walked back into the room with her three friends in tow all of them looking almost in awe at the queen. 

Marlene rolled her eyes before turning to her mother “ Now that everyone is here, would you mind telling us what exactly this way into the castle is that you’re talking about?”

Selene smiled “ I see you still like to get right to the point, You really do take after me.” Selene paused for a moment reaching into her pocket and pulling out a key “ This is a spare key leading to the ruins under the castle. The only way in or out that the guards don’t know about, except for Lambert of course he did build the tunnels after all”

Gaufre looked up, probably confused “ Lambert built tunnels under the castle all on his own?” Albert nodded, sharing Gaufre’s confused sentiment. 

Selene chuckled “ Of all the nicknames Lambert gives himself I must say ‘The Architect of Marche’ is certainly the most true, He built the whole thing with his monsters in the span of three months years ago” Selene handed Marlene a map before turning to leave “ I would suggest going there tonight, you’re fathers in a bit of a mood so security won’t be as harsh if they’re tending to him”

Marlene folded her arms as Selene left “ He’s not my father anymore, but regardless thank you, this really helps us” She opened the map looking at the entrance to the tunnel and the key they needed to enter. She sighed “ This is going to be tough, our strongest monsters are out of commission.” 

Tico walked over looking up at the map “ If you want, my monster mom can come along and help, She’s super strong.”

Nayuta nodded, folding her arms, “Plus Marlene, I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring Rygar along on things like this. He's getting old and he may not be able to fight for too much longer without risking his health. He’s done his best, but after today his health is in critical danger if he gets into another battle” 

Marlene sighed “ You’re right, I don’t want to risk him getting hurt so, I guess we need to bring Maya.” Marlene smiled at Tico “ Thank you for letting her come along on this one with us.” 

Tico smiled “ Of course, both me and my monster mom are happy to help” He started to leave the room “I’m gonna go get Maya ready to go on this adventure, she’ll be so excited” Tico ran out of the room in a hurry. 

Nayuta looked over at Marlene a look of almost sadness on her face “ You’ve done well raising Rygar but soon we should think about retiring him and letting his anima to pass onto a new generation of monsters.” 

Marlene glanced over at Nayuta, she kept composure but there was still a slight amount of sadness in her eyes. “I’d rather not think about that right now, we have other things to deal with first.”

“You’re right sorry.” Nayuta apologized, taking a step or two away from Marlene. 

Julio sighed “ I hope our other two monsters aren’t too hurt from the battle earlier to fight.” He looked up at Marlene “ It wouldn’t be safe to go into this place without monsters who knows what might be down there.” 

Daisy took a step toward the door “ I should stay back in the tent for this one, It’s best I don’t go after that happened in the factory, besides I can give Rygar company” Daisy started to leave the room as well, talking as she went. “ I know you guys will do great getting through those ruins with or without Rygar.”

Nayuta looked at the time “ We should be heading out soon if we want to get there tonight like the queen suggested.” 

Marlene nodded “ Let’s go get ready and we can meet in front of the tent in an hour.” 

Julio and Nayuta nodded before running off into the tent to get ready, Marlene sighed as she followed for a bit before walking into her room. She grabbed a long dark blue cloak off her wall and put it on making sure to put the hood up so no one would recognize her as she walked to the ruins with Julio and Nayuta, she realized that three circus people walking around with a monster is already going to draw attention, she didn’t want even more attention from people seeing the “princess” walking around with them as well. She turned and made her way to the front of the tent, incredibly nervous to set foot outside of the tent in Campana after so long. Once she reached the front, Nayuta and Julio were there waiting for her, Tico stood by them happily rambling about how his Maya was going to help them so much. 

“Her attacks are so strong and she’s gotten even faster than she was in the forest, when we first met.” Tico said, happily “ She’s also learned new attacks like Shadow Cover and Evil Eye, which can also help so much.” 

Marlene smiled as she walked over to them “ Well with her on our team, We’ve got nothing to worry about.” Marlene extended a hand to pet the Maya, hesitating for a moment making sure the monster would let her pet it first “ Now you should go back inside Tico, it’s getting late” 

Tico slowly made his way back to the tent giving a thumbs up to his monster as he went “ Ok, I’ll go inside but I’m not going to bed” 

Nayuta chuckled “ He’s really excited that Maya gets to come with us isn’t he” She looked down at the cat-like monster who had sat down patiently waiting for them to get going “ I just hope she can make up for the Mystery and Spork, those two are still tired from earlier today.” 

Julio nodded slowly, “ I hope they’ll be ok, I don’t want our monsters getting hurt, I don’t know what I’d do if Mystery got hurt as much as he did when we fought Jhuchu.” He sighed, still bitter about his loss against her. “ We should get going, just get through these ruins quickly.” 

The two girls nodded in agreement and the three set off, making their way down the streets of Campana, passing through the square, narrowly avoiding a guard who was either asleep or patiently waiting for something to happen. They slipped through a small archway of bushes leading to a stone wall, mostly unassuming unless you knew where to look. Marlene quickly removed a stone from the wall and used the key Selene had given them to open a small stone doorway into the ruins. The three ran inside shutting the door behind them quickly making sure no one saw them enter. 

The room had walls paved with a beige colored wallpaper that had peeled off from the wears of time, as they stepped in torches lit up along the walls revealing a large room with two pedestals and a large door with the king's insignia in faded blue lines marked on it. To one side sat the jar Baja usually resided in. Marlene placed her hand on the jar and Baja sprang forth in the sudden manner like he usually did.   
“Hello again young travelers, I have not much information for you here.” He paused looking to the door for a moment. “ I will offer you my best wishes, for this is the most haunted place in Campana” He swiftly returned to his jar

“Haunted?” Nayuta asked a bit confused “ Are ghosts even real”

Julio and Marlene gave Nayuta confused looks. Looking at each other for a moment to make sure they both heard her say that before looking back at her. 

“ Nayuta you do magic.” Marlene stated rather matter of factly “ How can you do magic, talk about anima, and not believe in ghosts.”

“I guess I’ve suspended my belief a little bit in things like that.” Nayuta paused “ Plus I always thought ghosts were just a type of monster and not an actual thing.” 

Julio sighed “ It’s both, though we refer to human ghosts as spirits where I’m from to keep the separation.” He walked away from the two over to the pedestals “ We don’t have time for this anyway we should hurry out of here.” 

Marlene nodded “ This mechanism seems easy enough to get past, just stand on both of the pedestals and the door should open.” Marlene said as she stood on one of them, it made a clunking sound and the door shifted with a large amount of dust coming off the top of it as it did so.

Julio followed suit and stood on the opposite one, the door rattled shaking off quite a lot of dust as it slowly sank into the ground revealing the way through the room. The three walked through, making their way across a large bridge of several octagonal platforms that felt like they could sink at any moment. Once they crossed they were met by Lambert and Selene. 

“I see you three followed my advice, that’s good.” Selene said smiling. 

“ Your highness what are you doing down here?’ Nayuta asked, a little surprised. “Isn’t it a bit dangerous down here for anyone that isn’t a normal monster trainer.”

“ Yes it seems that this place has become quite the beehive for Noramon, but that doesn’t matter for me as I have Lambert with me.” Selene motioned to Lambert who smiled at the three.

Marlene smiled back at him “ I’m glad you’re ok uncle I was worried that something had happened to you after what you did for us earlier.” 

“The king was very angry with me, however your mother stood up for me and certainly saved me from quite a lot of trouble.” Lambert smiled “ I am deeply thankful for Her highness's kindness.” 

“ Oh please Lambert you flatter me, I was just doing what was right.” Selene smiled, “ Now I think we should be heading off. You three shouldn’t have too much trouble Lambert took care of most of the Noramon back there.” 

“Thank you, that’s very helpful.” Julio said, giving a big smile to Lambert “I hope we can say goodbye after all of this, you’ve helped us so much Lambert” 

Lambert smiled as he walked past with Selene “ I’ll do my best to have one last encounter with you all before you depart.” He waved goodbye and departed with Selene to the entrance. 

“I never expected the queen to be so adventurous.” Nayuta remarked smiling “ I can certainly see where you get that trait from Marlene” 

Marlene smiled “ If there’s anyone I’d like to take after it’’s Lambert.” She paused as she started to walk down the path “ Mother, may act free spirited, but she’s too afraid to stand up to the king directly. The only person to ever do that is Lambert, he did it today when he protected you two.” 

“Lambert is certainly a great person, you’re lucky to have him Marlene.” Julio remarked, a sad smile on his face.

“Yeah, I’m lucky to have had him there before.” She smiled “ But I’ve got a new family now, I have you guys here with me.”

Julio smiled and hugged Marlene, Marlene grabbed Nayuta and pulled her into the hug too. They hugged for a moment, Julio did his best not to cry from how happy hearing Marlene call him family made him, even with his best efforts he couldn’t stop a few tears from streaming down his face. 

“ This probably isn’t the time to get sappy is it?” Marlene said chuckling, “ Before we get moving I have to say, Julio and Nayuta I’m glad you two are part of my little misfit family, you’ve certainly made my life far more exciting.” 

Julio nodded in agreement, wiping the tears off of his face as he did so, Nayuta softly smiled as they began to walk further into the ruins. Lambert having taken care of all the Noramon allowed this feeling to last, keeping their spirits high as they moved through the ruins solving a puzzle from time to time, but otherwise it was just them happily talking, and saying that they were glad to have met each other. It helped them forget about all the worries they had faced before. However this feeling was cut short then they began to walk down a large staircase, they entered a room with a drawbridge that was raised and blocked their path, the room felt cold and almost made them feel like they weren’t alone. 

Suddenly the lights in the room went dark all at once, like a strong gust of wind had blown out every torch at the exact same time. The three reached out for each other trying not to get lost in the now darkened room. But the only thing they made contact with individually was a wooden door, the second they touched the door the lights lit back up revealing the three had been split up, A monster in their team had been arranged around them in their respective rooms, on the wooden door was a message saying that they must complete the trial that resided in the room they were trapped in before the door would open. 

Julio and Spork were trapped in a large room with three metal gates ingrained into the greyed brick wall. He walked up to one of them and the gates' metal bars quickly retracted into the wall revealing a chest, he did this with the other two rooms and they showed the same things. He looked back at the wooden door's message and read ‘Three tell the truth, Six are full of lies, only a path of truth will allow you to leave.’ 

“So I’m guessing I have to find the real chest,” Julio muttered. He turned to Spork who looked curiously at the first door, “ Well I guess Spork would know what’s best.” 

Julio opened the chest, not noticing Spork hiss as he touched the chest, Jack-in-the-Cho sprang forth and hit Julio back with a boxing glove on a spring, Spork quickly ran into action to protect Julio who was gasping after such a hard hit. 

Spork, ready for a win, unleashed an on set of new attacks he had been learning, starting with mute cutter his arm blades swishing through the air causing the air itself to become weapons and attack like blades at a distance before Spork used Dark gale and in a flash almost teleporting behind the Jack-in-the-Cho after a large amount of wind blades and actual blade damage striking the Cho causing it’s chest to launch towards Spork who used Tail claw slamming the chest down onto the ground with force, and that was it. The Cho ran away in a panic after the utter destruction of it’s chest in the battle. 

Spork looked at Julio excitedly, almost like a dog looking for praise. Julio pet the top of Spork’s head for a moment, the monster's tail wagged happily. Julio smiled before walking to the next door, hesitating as he reached for the chest, before his hand pressed against the lid Spork began to growl angrily, Julio pulled his hand away, causing Spork to stop. That’s when he realized something. 

“Spork you know which ones are fake.” Julio paused, “ That means I can avoid the Jack-in-the-Chos that are in this room.” 

He walked to the next room holding his hand above the treasure chest waiting for a signal from Spork. He opened the chest after Spork stayed silent, Inside was a small yellow feather. After he lifted the feather the wall behind the chest sank into the ground revealing an identical room to the one he was standing in now. He went on using Spork’s help to get through the rooms without another surprise attack. He received a red and blue feather from the other chests, he wasn’t quite sure why but they felt important, almost like he was being told to hold onto them. After the third feather he was lead into a room with a large pedestal and small chest, on the pedestal read “ Stand for even a moment to continue on your path in more than one way” He stepped onto it and simultaneously he heard the chains from the drawbridge rattle and the wooden door he had some from swing open with a loud creaking noise. He opened the chest, inside was a small orb with a button engraved onto it, he thought it was weird but he didn’t question it as he left the room.

While this was happening to Julio, Nayuta was in a room of her own. She stood on a large platform with four colored switches and a large mural written in the Tochikan language. It read ‘ The sun rises clearing the sea, letting the grass grow and the roses bloom’. She paused, Mystery stood by her looking curiously at the switches around her. 

“Let’s see, the switch colors are yellow, blue, red, and green.” She mumbled staring at the ground. “ If I’m correct, that short story tells me the order I need to press them in.” 

She looked down at Mystery who was patiently listening as she spoke, She smiled at the Piroro who seemingly smiled back as his eyes curved into what looked similar to a smiling face. She turned to look back at the switched narrating what she did as she pressed them.

“The sun is yellow or at least it usually is so we press that first, the sea is blue so that’s second.” She looked back up for a moment to make sure she had this correct. “ Next is green like the grass, and then red like the roses.”

As she pressed the last switch a clunk noise came from the ground behind her as a chest rose up from the ground and the mural sank into the ground revealing a pedestal with more writing on it. She walked forward standing on the pedestal causing the door to open and the drawbridge to fall, but she was more curious about the writing on the wall. 

“A group shall bring smiles to a world without them, and bring down a force of internal anger.” Nayuta read aloud to Mystery who was still happily listening “ This is our last prediction, for the all knowing Key, Lambert built this place didn’t he, does that mean he made this too if not then how long have these writings been down here?” She turned to leave, as she took the small trinket Mystery had gotten from the chest, it was a small pendant with an egg like shape carved into it. 

Finally Marlene sat in her room, looking out in a slight panic at the room she had to face, across from the hall was a large pedestal, but her only problem was the large pillars spewing flames in separate directions as they spun, she was going to have to get past these if she wanted to get through. Maya stood next to her. She would normally be fine getting through something like this with Rygar if she could ride on his back, but she was with Maya. While Maya was the same size as Rygar, it’s far more dangerous to ride on the back of a Maya as Maya’s tend to be less friendly to people, and would attack with its wings if it’s rider made it angry. 

However Maya seemed eager to get through, it’s wings spread allowing Marlene to sit on it’s back. It didn’t hesitate before launching itself forward through the maze of fire, Marlene steering it away from any harm. She was glad the circus prepared her for things like this with the flame hoop trick she used to do with Rygar. 

It took no time for her and Maya to reach the other side of the hall, Marlene got off Maya’ back and walked over to the pedestal as she stood on it the flames in the room clicked off and the door swing open, she could hear the drawbridge from the room over slam downward, opening the next room to the group. She turned and began to leave with Maya when she heard a sound from behind her. She turned to see only for a moment, a face nodding in approval at her. She wasn’t quite sure if it was even real but by the time she blinked in shock the face was gone. 

“Either I’m just seeing things or Baja was right saying this place was haunted.” She commented, turning to leave motioning for Maya to follow, the monster slowly followed but it kept it’s eye on the spot that Marlene had seen the face.

One in the main room Marlene saw Julio and Nayuta leaving their rooms as well. They met up in front of the draw bridge, giving worried looks making sure everyone was alright. 

“ Hey Nayuta thank you for summoning the monsters to protect us.” Julio commented as they made their way across the drawbridge, it’s wood creaking under them as they did so

Nayuta looked a little worried “ The thing is I didn’t summon Spork or Mystery here.” They all paused for a moment hearing her admit this.

“ That’s odd, You know it’s also weird we just wound up in rooms so far apart like that.” Marlene said, holding a calm tone.

“Maybe Baja had something to do with it?” Julio asked “ I mean he’s magic too right.” 

Nayuta just shrugged as they made their way down a large stone staircase, the walls around them looking more weathered and aged than they had at all before. At the bottom of the staircase stood Baja’s jar. Nayuta pressed her hand to it and Baja sprang forth a look of almost worry in his eyes. 

“ This is the scariest part of these ruins,” He paused, looking just past Marlene. “ I do not like it here, I suggest the four of you leave quickly.” 

Marlene was about to ask what he meant by four but before she could Baja retracted into his jar with an almost eager pace to his movement. 

“Let’s just keep going.” Nayuta said, her tone was more than a little shaken up. “ This place is getting creepier by the second.” 

Julio and Marlene nodded, and the three walked into a large open room, it looked like it could have been the entrance to a palace at one time, but now everything had collapsed or given into the passage of time, large pillars lay broken on the ground covered in dust, the bricks on the wall were grey, and almost looked like they could break with even the slightest touch. In the middle of the room however stood a large blank grey wall, it seemed to reflect the light from the torches causing it to shine. It was hard not to notice how out of place it looked. 

As the group walked towards it a voice spoke to them “ I hear someone approaching? Ah yes the time has finally arrived, I’ve waited decades for this day.” 

“What? Who was that?” Nayuta asked looking confused “ Wait it couldn’t be, is the wall talking to us?”

“Ah I hear the voice of a Tochikan shrine maiden, I can feel the footsteps of the two alongside her, the young boy with his Anima recorder, and the princess who was fated to lead them to me.” The wall lifted off the ground levitating in the air “ I must let you know what I am unable to tell you anything without a battle first, I must make sure you are ready. Come now face the king of Monoliths and prove yourself” 

Without even a moment's notice Maya, Spork and Mystery were standing in front of the three ready to fight the Monolith. King Monolith gave them no warning as it broke down into several tiny blocks reforming into a long spiked chain and came crashing down above the monsters who were all just barely able to avoid it, Marlene and Julio also had to jump to the side to avoid being crushed by this attack. The room shook with the force of the attack causing dust to fall from the ceiling and the ground and walls to crack. 

“We need to win this fast if we don’t want to be crushed by the room collapsing or by the monolith.” Nayuta yelled, dodging a large chunk of the ceiling that came crashing down next to her.

Marlene nodded and turned to the monsters, she commanded Spork to use Mute Cutter, while the Monolith reformed. Spork did so quickly however the blades of air simply dispersed when they made contact, doing nothing.  
Marlene clenched her fists anxiously “ This thing can shrug off our attacks like they’re nothing, that’s not good.” 

She commanded Mystery to use Ice Boom S as an idea came to her. The second the icicles were summoned into the air she yelled for Maya to use Shooting Rainbow on them, the ice magnified the light based attack and nearly tripled the amount of force the attack had. The super charged attack hit the Monolith, causing several bits of its body to get flung away. Before the pieces could reform Ice Boom also landed dealing that extra bit of damage. The Monolith formed into a giant hand and flung its fingers forward causing a large amount of wind to stagger everyone back, this attack was followed up with the bits of Monol that were knocked loose to fly at them, the monsters protected their trainers getting hit pretty hard by this attack. 

Julio cried out in panic seeing Mystery Spork stagger in pain as they were hit. The two monsters weren’t about to give up however, and hearing the pain in Julio’s voice only fueled their drive to win. Mystery used Ice Boom S, Sporks stuck it’s tail in the path of the ice causing the claw forms on his tail to be covered in an icy armor, Spork used Ice Pillat creating what looked like a clawed gauntlet around his tail, Spork charged at the Monolith flipping into the air slashing at the Monolith with its tail, Maya jumped into the air using i’s wings to propel itself forward, its paws met with Spork’s hands allowing it to shoot forward like a missle, Sporks tail aimed forward to collide with the Monolith and truly use the Boom part of Mystery’s Ice Boom S. The attack collided and with what almost sounded like a howl the Monolith fell back to the ground falling backwards. 

Julio ran forward happily, hugging both Mystery and Spork while Maya nuzzled against his leg like a normal cat would do. As they did this King Monolith slowly rose into the air again, Its movement calm and slow. 

“ You have proven yourselves, I am most astonished.” King Monolith spoke in a calm tone “ I am the key you seek, the all knowing key. I shall tell you what you need to know. Next you must go to the town of Conga Conga and face my brother Mao Mao, and retrieve the anima player called Moos horn.”

“Anima player?” Marlene asked, slightly confused “ Is it like Julio’s anima player.” 

“It is quite the opposite.” King Monolith’s tone sounded slightly offended “ An Anima player doesn’t communicate with monsters, it takes control of them, corrupting their anima in the process. This horn is the only thing that can control Moo and without it I fear you may not be able to stop the people of Warp. Now this is all I can tell you.” He sank to the ground without saying another word. The three came together to discuss what King Monolith just told them.

“ So next is Conga Conga it seems ri-” Julio was cut off by a man’s voice yelling from behind them 

“HOW DARE YOU ALL INTRUDE IN MY HOME LIKE THIS.” King Marche roared in pure hatred “ THAT IS ENOUGH IT’S TIME I TRULY TOOK CARE OF YOU CIRCUS FREAKS.” He was about to call his guards when suddenly a figure appeared in between the king and the trio. 

The figure was a woman in a long grey dress, she stepped toward him as Marlene realized she was the woman she had seen in the fire room. Marlene whispered over to Julio and Nayuta “ She’s the ghost of Marche, I’ve heard rumors about here but I didn’t think she was real” 

Nayuta quickly whispered back as the figure spoke with the king “ She must be why Baja called this place haunted.” 

Julio nodded “ She must have been with us the whole time. It’s why Baja said four of us earlier.” 

The figure turned to the three, a small smile on her face as she vanished into the air. Once she had fully gone, the words “ I trust you to finish what you are destined to do.” rang through the room. 

The King looked rather shocked, and a bit scared as he cleared his throat “ I apologize for how I’ve acted, and I shouldn’t have let personal feelings get in the way of my true duty here.” He paused looking up at King Monolith “ It was the duty of the people of Marche to protect the Keys prophecies and when it was finally time to find someone worthy of completing the prophecy I stopped you from doing so.” 

Nayuta folded her arms “ That’s not the only thing you should apologize for.” She looked over at Marlene “ but I don’t think you can fix what you’ve done.” 

The King looked a little ashamed “ I hope one day you can forgive me Marlene.” 

Marlene looked at him with anger in her eyes “ It’s not going to be that easy, if you really want me to forgive you, then you have so much you need to fix.” She started to walk past him “ We’re going back to the tent.” 

Julio and Nayuta nodded following quickly behind Marlene, they walked to Baja who used his magic to send them out of the tunnels, Marlene turning back one more time to see the King waving goodbye to her.


	13. Road to Tongue Bool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This starts the short intermission in the story, so the end of this and the next chapter are going to be a filler arc, filled with character growth ~Yay~

It had been a week since they’re adventure in the Marche Ruins, The King had called for the troupe to gather in Campana square, reluctantly Marlene came along after two hours of Daisy and Guafre convincing her. They walked into the square to be joyously greeted by Lambert. The troupe was a bit shocked to see Selene accompanying the King in the square, she waved to them with a small smile. 

“ Hello, I’m glad you all are here.” The King said in a slightly forced happy tone. “ I would like to start by saying, I deeply apologize for the things I’ve put you all through.”

Nayuta scoffed silently, she turned to see Marlene sneaking away from the rest of the group only to be cut off by Gaufre who looked down on her folding his arms, Marlene sighed and walked back to the group with him standing behind her to stop her from leaving again. The King had been giving a long winded speech about how he “ shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on one thing” and how he’ll “ be more careful in the future.” 

“Now that I’m done apologizing I have some gifts to further show how sorry I am.” The King turned to pick up several items from a bag he had brought with him “ Firstly I have this document for the white haired boy.” 

Julio took a small paper that the King was giving him, as he read it his eyes widened “ This is a certificate making me an official monster trainer.” Julio looked down at the certificate in shock. “Wow I never thought i’d be able to see one of these in person let alone be given one.” 

Tico jumped up to look at the paper in curiosity “ I can’t see it, but you deserve to be recognized big bro.” 

The King gave a half hearted chuckle while reaching into the bag again this time he pulled out a small brown pouch that seemed to glow when he picked it up. He handed the pouch to Daisy, who looked into it curiously. 

“ These are rare gadget tanks.” Daisy gasped as she pulled one out of the bag, It was a small golden ball almost looking like an atom. She looked at it curiously reading the tag attached to it “ Wow a high level champion tank these things are so rare I thought they were just myth.” 

Nayuta looked at the ball curiously “ What’s a gadget tank? I’ve never heard of them before.” 

Daisy didn’t take her eyes off the ball as she spoke “ They’re miniature power sources for machines, like the gadgets we use to help monsters train. Some of them like the one I’m holding even have a sort of anima ability that helps the monster get even stronger when using a trick.” 

Nayuta nodded intrigued. “ Wow to think something that can fit into the palm of your hand could be so useful.” 

The King cleared his throat, seeming a little impatient, “Next I have a gift for you Albert.” He pulled a disk out of the bag “ It was once the monster of a faithful soldier of mine, I’m sure you can put it to far better use than any of my soldiers can.” 

Albert nodded “ Thank you, your highness.” He looked over the disk carefully before holding it carefully at his side.

“Finally, I have a gift for you Marlene.” He reached into the bag and pulled out a tiara “ I’m letting you back into the family, I want you to come back and be a princess again. Our family can be whole again.” 

Marlene looked almost disgusted by the tiara, looking at the others around her noticing how they also had very negative reactions to what the King had offered her, she took a deep breath, reached out for the tiara, and pushed the Kings hand away slowly. 

“ I can’t do that.” Marlene calmly stated, the King looking offended, “ I already have a family that I’m really a part of, and you can’t expect me to go back so willingly after all you’ve done to me and my real family,” Marlene took a step back to which the troupe stood at her sides. 

The King looked at all of them angry, and confused “ How could you, I thought we were a family?” He took a step forward trying yet again to give Marlene the tiara again. 

Marlene shook her head “ No we aren’t, We stopped being family the second you started putting your own image before your family, You value yourself more than you value anything else and I’m not going to sit around like I did back then, I’m not going to stand there and hope for you to notice how I feel because it’s not going to happen.” Marlene stood tall with her family at her side. All of them looked at the King showing that they agreed with Marlene. 

The King’s face turned red and it seemed like he was about to start yelling when Lambert spoke up. 

“I agree Sir.” Lambert walked over to Marlene smiling “ She shouldn’t be forced to stay and leave those who she really cares about.” 

The King looked outraged upon hearing Lambert’s comment “How dare you interrupt me like that Lambert.” He paused his fists shaking in anger “ I let you go for helping these hoodlums before but this time I’ll” He was cut off yet again this time by Selene. 

“No you aren’t doing anything.” Selene interrupted as she stepped next to him resting her hand on his shoulder “ We’re letting Marlene do as she pleases, forcing her here would only hurt her, but I will agree with the Lambert notion.” 

Marlene looked stunned “ Mother, what do you mean.” 

Lambert slowly bowed his head, “ I understand Ma’am I’ll accept any punishment you wish to give me.” 

Selene spoke softly “ Lambert as punishment for your betrayal of the king on multiple counts you are hereby discharged of all 17 of your duties in the castle.”

Marlene took a step forward angrily “ Mother you can’t do that.” 

Selene’s tone turned to a slightly angered one “ Let me finish Marlene.” She paused taking a deep breath “ Lambert you are now given he duty of princess attendant” 

Almost everyone looked at her shocked, not sure if they had heard her correctly, Lambert nodded his head, while the King looked at her in complete shock, his previous anger was gone, replaced by the complete shock.

“I understand Ma’am, I’ll do my best to protect Marlene on her travels” Lambert bowed slowly. 

Selene nodded “ I trust you will carry out your duty to the best of your abilities.” She turned to the King “ I believe this is our time to leave Marlene, we’ve done all we can.” Selene began to walk away, almost dragging the King with her.

Albert took a moment before he turned, to walk back to the tent. “ We should get going as well, We’re on a time limit to get to Conga Conga right?” 

Nayuta nodded “Yes we need to get there as fast as we can before the people of Warp are able to get there.”   
“We’ll be going back to my village, It’s been a while since I’ve left.” Gaufre commented as we walked along “ Though we might not be able to see Mao Mao.”

“What do you mean Gaufre?” Daisy asked, only half paying attention to conversation. 

Gaufre simply sighed “ You’ll see what I mean when I get there.” 

“Well regardless we’ll need to stop somewhere to refuel before we can make it to Conga Conga.” Albert said calmly “ We can go to Tongue Bool, it’s on the way.” 

Nayuta nodded “ Alright, as long as we can get to Conga Conga before the people of Warp can.” 

They began to walk off, everyone talking about what they need to look out for on the road, and bringing Lambert up to speed with everything that had been going on recently. Nayuta offered to summon a monster for him, but he rejected the idea saying he was getting too old to be raising a monster from scratch. Julio and Tico talked about what being a certified monster trainer meant, while Marlene walked at the back of the group thinking silently as they went. 

It had been a week from that day, the troupe was on the road to Tongue bool, their tent had wheels on it’s side making it like a wagon, rocking along as it rode down the sand covered road showing they were getting closer to Tongue Bool. Julio sat at the back of the wagon watching the road go by as they went along, His knees were tucked under his chin as he sat there. From far behind him he could faintly hear Nayuta and Tico talking somewhere in the tent, he gave a sad sigh before he heard someone’s voice from behind him. 

“Mind if I join you?” Marlene asked sitting down next to him looking out the window showing the road behind them as well. “Are you feeling ok?” 

Julio gave a weak smile “ I’m fine, just needed some time alone” 

“Is it one of those days?” Marlene asked softly, turning her attention towards him. “ You know when you feel like this you don’t have to hide away from the rest of us. We’re all here to help” 

Julio sighed, “ I know, usually I wouldn’t be afraid to bring it up to you or Albert because I know how well you two are able to make me feel a little better, but…” He paused, tears forming in his eyes. 

“You don’t want Nayuta to find out?” Marlene asked calmly, Julio wordlessly nodding in response. “ I know her views on the world are a bit old fashioned, but I know she wouldn’t react negatively if you ever did tell her, but you also don’t have to tell her.” 

Julio sighed again wiping a few tears from his eyes “ I just don’t want to find out how she’d react, and it’s harder now since Lambert and Daisy are here, I don’t know how they’d react either.” He paused, taking a shaky deep breath “ What if they don’t think I’ve lied to them about who I am this whole time.” 

Marlene walked over to him, pulling him into a hug “ You don’t have to tell them anything Julio, and if they did say anything like that I’ll ditch them in the next town.” 

Julio chuckled a little caught off guard by the joke. He looked up at Marlene who pulled away from the hug “ Would you really?” 

“ I left the King daughter -ess for a while now, I’ve got no problem cutting more people off.” Marlene smiled, “ But to be a bit more serious, if you ever feel dysphoric and don’t want to bring it up around Nayuta, just pass me a note or something and I can pull you aside and sit with you until you feel better.” 

Julio nodded “ Thank you Marlene, what did I do to find someone as supportive as you.” He smiled while wiping a few more tears from his eyes. 

Marlene smiled “ You deserve to be around supportive people Julio.” Marlene said sitting down next to him “ I’m just happy I can be a part of the people that support you.” 

The two spent the rest of the afternoon talking together, Marlene motivating and helping Julio get through his dysphoria. She knew all she could do was be there for him, and she was more than happy to do so. He was part of her family after all, and she wasn’t going to let him be upset if she could help it. 

The Tent made its way down the road, slowly approaching Tongue Bool and a new adventure, the long road stretching far ahead at least gave them some time to rest and get ready for anything that may face them in Tongue Bool.


	14. Intermission

The day after Marlene and Julio had spoken they had begun to near Tongue Bool the town barely visible in the far distance from the top of the sand covered mountain they were traveling down, the desert around them was harsh sunlight beating down on the roof of the large wagon as it moved along the road. Though the heat was the least of their worries at the moment. 

The group had gathered in the stage area where they had been doing their best to train even with the tent being in it’s wagon form and giving them less space. Things had gone well until Marlene called everyone to a stop, she was sat on the ground with Rygar, his head on her lap as he whimpered softly. Marlene had tears welling up in her eyes as she looked down at her monster. 

Nayuta and Daisy were the first to reach her, both of their expressions revealing that they were worried and slightly afraid as to what Marlene was going to tell them. Marlene didn’t need to speak however they both knew what was wrong as they looked down at Rygar the monster laying on the ground not from exhaustion, but from something much worse. 

“It’s his time isn’t it.” Nayuta said, tears forming in her eyes as she leaned down next to the monster brushing her hand over his head for a moment. “ Marlene I know this will be hard but I have to seal him, he’ll only be in worse condition if he keeps up like this.” 

Marlene nodded slowly, tears streaming down her cheeks as she did so. “ I’m going to miss you so much Rygar.” She looked down at the monster trying to stop the tears falling from her face by wiping them away. “ We’ve been through so much together.” 

Nayuta turned to Julio stifling her tears for a moment before she spoke “ Julio, play the anima recorder please, help Rygar feel calm in his last moments before I have to seal him away.” 

Julio nodded as he began to play a low tune, the song that Rygar always seemed to enjoy when he played it. This joyous tune was turned into a more sad and slowed tone as Julio did his best not to cry while playing it. Rygar gave what appeared to be a smile as the song rang through the room. 

Nayuta matched the playing of her anima instrument to the song as she sealed Rygar, the monster fading into a pink toned light which turned into a butterfly fluttering about for a moment and tapping against Marlene’s hand a few times before it rested on the ground and turning into the disk that Rygar had come from.

On the side of the disk was a new inscription reading. “ Thank you for everything Marlene. I know your next monster will be lucky to be raised by you” resting on top of the disk was the scarlet ribbon Rygar had been given in Campana, Marlene picked it up and held it close for a moment, sobbing now at the loss of her monster. 

Hours later, the group had gathered to do a routine goodbye to their lost monster. Everyone exchanged happy memories with Rygar and how much he helped the troupe when they needed help. Him being sealed away was going to leave a serious impact on the troupe not just emotionally but physically as Rygar was one of their best monsters. 

Lambert stood next to Marlene comforting her, she had managed to slow her tears over the past few hours but it still hurt to seal Rygar knowing she would most likely never see him again. She had tired his ribbon around her arm as a way to remember him and still have him with her in some form. 

After everyone had finished talking and their routine goodbyes were over Lambert stood and excused himself from the room only to come back with a disk, the disk that the king had given them back in the kingdom. He placed it next to Rygar’s disk before turning to Nayuta. 

“ Rygar may be gone, but we shouldn’t let his passing go in vain.” Lambert said, his voice calm and collected slightly opposing the somber and sad mood in the room. 

“ What do you mean Lambert?” Daisy asked as she sat next to Marlene taking a turn comforting her hurt friend. 

“ Nayuta is from Tochika, she can combine the anima of two fully realized monsters and create a new monster from it.” Lambert gave a small smile “ So while Rygar is gone, in a way we can still have him with us in the form of his next generation.” 

Nayuta stood slowly hearing him say this “ Lambert is right, It may not be Rygar that I’ll raise but part of him will be a part of this new monster.” She paused for a moment looking at Marlene “ But I’ll only do it if your ok with it” 

Marlene looked up at Nayuta and then the inscription on Rygar’s disk. She slowly nodded still looking at her former monster's disk “ I think Rygar would have wanted that.” She took a shaky breath “ Rygar wouldn’t want me to sulk about this and not train another monster.” 

Nayuta nodded she began to play her instruments, the two disks on the table lit up and shone brightly two butterflies flew out from them and danced around each other for a moment before they met in the middle, their bodies merged as they did so, Their four separate wings merging and becoming two larger ones. The lone, but far larger butterfly fluttered to the ground slowly before as a teal green aura surrounded it, the butterfly becoming a ball of light which then turned into a new monster. A large stuffed rabbit monster called an Eared Mew on his bandanna, the name “Rocket” was embroidered. 

The monster looked around with it’s black button eyes before seeing Marlene, it looked overjoyed to see her sprinting over and jumping into her arms giving her a big hug. Marlene slowly hugged the small monster back, her tears returning as she hugged her new monster. 

Tico watched the two hug for a moment before leaving the room, running into the tent they trained the monsters in tears welling in his eyes. He sat in the corner trying not to be seen, but that didn’t last long as Gaufre walked into the room looking for him. 

“Tico? Are you ok?” Gaufrey asked, sitting down in an attempt to be at eye level with Tico. 

Tico whipped away his tears quickly trying not to let Gaufre see his sadness but it was too late as when he looked at Gaufre the man had already opened his arms offering a hug. Tico quickly accepted the hug, no longer holding back his tears as he sobbed into Gaufre’s shoulder. 

“I’m so worried, Gaufre.” Tico whispered between sobs “ My monster mom isn’t much younger than Rygar what if she’s next.” His sobs became slightly more harsh as he said this. 

“ She doesn’t want to leave you Tico.” Gaufre paused “ But she can’t stay around forever, and I’m sure she’s held out for so long to make sure you found a safe place before she can’t go on anymore.” Gaufre knew saying this would hurt, but it was true the Maya looked out for Tico like one of her own and she wasn’t going to leave him alone if she could help it. 

“ I don’t want her to go, I don’t want to lose another mom.” Tico sobbed, shaking as he clung to Gaufre. “ I want her to be with me and everyone else forever.” 

“She will be with you Tico.” Gaufre said, doing his best to not sound upset hearing Tico’s sadness “ That crystal flower she gave you, it takes in a little bit of anima from a monster and stores it, she put her anima in it. It’s her way of watching over you.” 

“Tico you know you’re part of this family too right?” Gaufre said his eyes looking at Tico full of sympathy, even if they weren’t very visible through the mask Gaufre always wore the sentiment was still there. “ I’ll prove it to you.” 

Tico looked confused, “ What do you mean you’ll prove it to me.” He asked this while whipping more tears from his eyes. 

Gaufre sighed “ In my village our custom is to only show our face to people in our family, taking our mask off around anyone else is unacceptable and I’ve stuck by this rule for my whole life.” Gaufre motioned to his mask, “ But I don’t have to do that when I’m with you Tico, because you are part of my family now.” 

Gaufre looked around making sure no one could see him before his hands gripped the sides of his helmet like mask, it took a moment to do so but he finally removed the mask revealing his face to someone for the first time in many many years. 

He looked down at Tico giving him a soft smile, taking a moment to remove his long braided hair from his face. Tico looked up at him in disbelief, he was told not even Albert knew what Gaufre looked like. 

“ I hope this proves to you, that you’ll still have family without your Maya here.” Gaufre said, placing his mask back over his head before anyone else could see him. “ You’ll still have us and while losing her is a scary thought, don’t worry about the future for now. Make the best while she’s still here.” 

Tico nodded, tears streaming down his cheeks again, this time not from sadness, but from happiness. He couldn’t believe what Gaufre had done for him, especially with the rules he had just been told. Tico could hardly manage a word, all he could say was the single phrase. 

“ Thank you.”


	15. Tongue Bool

The troupe had finally arrived in Tongue Bool the town had a square sitting in between two larger fenced off sections of the town, large windmills and other older fashioned machinery were on each side. One had banners of a blue whale and the other of a red orca looking creature. 

“Albert why did we come here, wouldn’t it have been better to go to the bigger towns on the way?” Marlene asked looking around, noticing how the town was a little smaller than what they had seen before. 

“Well I know it’s safer here, and with how important our mission is, safety is the number one priority to me.” Albert said, as he looked around expectantly, his gaze met by an old frail looking woman walking up to him with a soft smile on her face.

“Oh Hello Miss, may we please set up our tent here, we’d love to perform while we’re waiting for more Geonyte.” Albert asked, leaning down a bit to be on an equal height as the woman. 

“ Oh Albert you know you don’t need to ask.” The woman said looking up at him. 

“ Yes of course, thank you Miss Grizzel.” Albert replied before bowing and turning to give the group the go ahead to begin setting up the tent. 

“Please be careful, don’t want you-know-who causing any trouble.” Grizzel warned as she slowly walked away holding her arm above her head to block some of the sand that was blowing with the wind. 

“ Hmm so he’s still up to his old tricks.” Albert mumbled to himself before turning to the group to help with setting up the tent. 

“So Albert did you grow up here?” Daisy asked, trying to make some small talk while they were setting up the tent. 

“I did yes, though I had hoped no one would recognize me.” Albert responded as he helped stake down part of the tent. 

“ Oh why's that?” Daisy questioned while staking down another part of the tent just a few feet from him. 

“I’m sure you’ll see soon enough.” Albert said walking away from Daisy to help elsewhere. 

The Setting up of the tent went smoothly and everyone but Albert, Marlene, and Daisy had gone into the tent. They stood around talking for a bit, Daisy asking if she could get some gadgets to test out the gift she had been given by the king weeks ago. She knew they could help the monsters get much stronger so she had been absent mindedly rambling about that until a woman in a long pale dress walked up to the three, a large smile on her face as she looked up at Albert. 

“Why Albert , you've finally come back after all this time.” She said happily looking up at Albert. 

Albert looked incredibly uncomfortable to see her “ Oh hello Lana I didn’t expect to see you so soon.” Albert said, his voice in a lower tone than usual. 

“You seem to be well known around here Albert.” Daisy stated happily, her joyous disposition was a deep contrast to Alberts at the moment. 

“Oh yes Albert and I go way back.” The woman said, doing a little sway as she said so. 

“Oh really?” Marlene asked a hint of interest in her voice. 

“ Yes of course Al and I were very very close back then.” The woman reminisced, still incredibly optimistic. 

“ Um Lana now isn’t a good time, we’re well a little….” Albert stammered getting cut off by Lana. 

“Oh are you busy, well I’ll have to stop by another time then.” Lana stated as she walked away “ I look forward to seeing you again Al” 

“ Well now I get why you wanted to come here Albert, you had a woman here. What would Morgan think?” Marlene said jokingly as she looked back to Albert. 

“ No that’s not it, she’s not my woman.” Albert retorted his tone getting very defensive as he did so. 

“ Oh so your ex?” Daisy cut in, joining the joke “ You're a heartbreaker Albert who would have guessed.” 

“ No please it’s neither of those things. Lets just drop it”Albert had begun to walk away before either of them could respond after saying this. Angrily throwing the tent doors open as he did so, turning to say “ Go get some gadgets, we’ll need them” 

Daisy’s eyes lit up as he said this, she grabbed Marlene's arm and looked around to see which side of the town the gadget shop was on before she dragged Marlene with her to the store. Marlene tried to stand her ground and protest but the sand made it rather easy for her to be dragged along. Daisy almost kicked down the large wooden doors set in the wooden fencing just so she could get to the gadget shop. 

They quickly arrived at the small store set up over a large blanket laid against the ground. A man sat on it cross legged, dusting off the several gadget sets spread across the blanket. He smiled at them as they arrived. Daisy kneeling down to see the names of the gadgets. 

“ Well someone looks eager.” The man commented smiling at Daisy as she picked up a few gadgets mumbling to herself “ Well when you find what you’re looking for just ask and I’ll give you a price” 

Marlene looked over at some of the gadgets “ You pick what you think is best Daisy, We’ll need whatever can train our monsters to be as ready as possible before we reach Conga Conga.” 

The man on the blanket looked up excited to hear the name Conga Conga almost. “ Oh you’re heading to Conga Conga soon? If you need items my partner sells the best battle items I’ve ever seen.” He paused for a moment “ Also if you wouldn’t mind, tell him I said Hi and I can’t wait to meet up with him again.” 

Marlene smiled “ Of course, though we won’t be travelling back and forth like messengers.” Marlene smiled at her joke, the man chuckling as well. 

“ I didn’t expect anything like that.” The man responded while shifting a bit, finally revealing his name tag which read ‘ Rhys’. “ As thanks for doing this, why don’t you take two gadgets at half price.” 

“ Thank you so much.” Daisy said scooping up gadgets without a second thought. Staring for a moment to pick up a third “ How much will this be?” 

The man looked at the third gadget for a moment “ That’ll be 700g.” The man took the money Daisy was handing him, He smiled and thanked them for their business and for helping say hello to his partner as they left to return to the tent, Daisy half sprinting off ahead so she could begin setting up the new gadgets. 

Marlene lagged behind a little, looking around at the town lost in thought. She had been feeling a bit more somber since the sealing of her monster, Rygar would have loved a new gadget, it had been a while since he had been given a new one. She looked at the ribbon still tied around her wrist. She knew her new monster would get better use out of it, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it just yet. She just needed more time. She was broken out of her trance by the voice of Lana ringing out from next to her as she was trying to walk into the tent. 

“ Oh hello you’re one of Albert’s new friends, correct?” Lana asked looking at Marlene who had faked a smile upon hearing someone near her. 

“ Oh yes I am, did you need something.” Marlene asked, turning and folding her arms still trying to act like she hadn’t just been on the verge of tears. 

“ I think it would be best to discuss this with Albert if you don’t mind.” Lana said, making her way into the tent walking right past Marlene with Miss Grizzel in tow, the older woman giving Marlene a more sympathetic look. Marlene followed them into the tent, as they all walked to the entrance room, she noticed an uncomfortable look on Albert’s face as he saw Lana, this look dissipated a little as he saw Grizzel and Marlene following her. 

“ Al I hate to ask this with you just being back home, but we need help.” Lana said looking over at Grizzel who had walked to Lana’s side. 

“It’s the temple, We can’t afford to keep it from those treacherous Red Orca anymore when they keep demanding more money, if we lose it….” Grizzel wasn’t able to finish her sentence as Albert interrupted her. 

“ I won’t let anything happen to the temple, I grew up there and not even he will do anything to it.” Albert stated confidently thinking for a moment trying to find a solution. “ We’ll hold a performance and donate the proceeds to the tower that should do it.” 

Lana looked over joyed “ Oh thank you Al, that means so much.” She turned to Grizzel for a moment. “ We’ll go now, but if you’ll have us we’ll come to your show.” Albert only nodded in response as the two left the tent. 

“You grew up in a temple?” Julio asked, not really taken back by the fact that they had to perform to raise money, but more focused on learning more about Albert’s past 

“ Yes, I was orphaned much like you Julio. I was taken in by Miss Grizzel and was raised in the temple.” Albert responded before he walked towards the exit of the room. “ I’ll need to ask Daisy and Lambert for help making sure the Gadgets are ready. We’ve gotten enough training done over the past few days of travel so we should be ready in a few days.” and with that Albert left the room an eagerness in his walk. 

“ Never a dull day here anymore.” Marlene commented smiling looking over at Julio who chuckled in response. 

“ Things have been so busy lately, We haven’t even had the time to perform recently.” Julio said smiling, his smile hid his feelings of worry however. He remembered what happened last time they had put on a show. He just hoped Mystery didn’t get hurt like his Mocchie did when they performed back in Colno.


	16. Performing to save the Temple

The troupe spent three days of training, Marlene wanting to make sure her new monster was ready for the troops charity show so they could help Grizzel fund the temple. It had been a while since they had done a show and since then they had performed last they had gained two new members of the troupe that had monsters to perform with as well. Tico had gotten the hang of the trick he’d been teaching his Maya, but Daisy was still getting used to training a monster and teaching it to use a trick, but the show must go on and before they knew it the day of the performance had arrived. The troupe had gathered backstage, getting their monsters ready, whispering back and forth while they did so. 

“I don’t think I can do this.” Daisy whispered nervously sitting next to her monster. “ I mean maybe just skip our performance for the night, I don’t want to ruin the show.” 

Gaufre sat next to her as he brushed Spork’s fur trying to make the monster look presentable for the nich. “ It’ll be okay Daisy, even if something does go wrong we’ll cover for you so no one sees it.” 

Marlene nodded as she gathered small bits of glitter into a small bag, “ It’ll be fine Daisy, the first shows always seem scary but they almost always go well.” 

“Almost always?” Daisy asked, a little worried. “ Have some shows gone horribly wrong or something?” 

Marlene sighed, “ Daisy even the times that something bad happened, it wasn’t something we couldn’t fix mid show, I promise.” Marlene gave Daisy a small smile before being called over by Albert. 

Daisy sighed and looked down at her monster, Mock looked back up at her and looked excited to perform, the flower above it’s head danced side to side in the monster's anticipation. Daisy smiled, she brushed the flower a bit, gaining a small bit of confidence though her fears were still just a little present. 

Meanwhile just outside of the backstage area, Julio paced back and forth nervously. Mystery watched as he did so, the small monster almost dancing with excitement as nothing brings a Piroro more joy than performing and making people happy. Julio would pat Mystery’s head every so often but he was far more occupied with the nerves he was feeling at that moment. He had just been given a new trick, one that was far more difficult than the juggling his Mocchi had failed at during the last show. He didn’t want Mystery to fail the trick and be embarrassed in front of so many people, he didn’t want Mystery to run away like his Mocchi had. 

After several minutes of this Julio was pulled from his panicked state by Nayuta peeking out of the backstage area looking for him. “Hey Julio, the show's about to start.” She paused looking at the worried look on his face “Is everything okay?” 

Julio paused for a moment, he was going to say everything was okay, but he just couldn’t seem to say anything with the anxiety building up. He simply shook his head. Mystery hopped over almost immediately as he stopped pacing and began hugging his leg. 

Nayuta walked over and hugged him as well “ Julio it’s going to be okay, you can do this. You and Mystery work so well together it’ll go great I’m sure of it.” 

As she said this Albert’s voice ran through the speakers on the stage announcing that the show was about to begin with Gaufre and Spork performing first. Nayuta and Julio slowly made their way over to the backstage area to get ready, but not before Nayuta gave Julio one last reassuring smile, wordlessly telling him everything would be okay. 

On the stage Gaufre and Spork stood side by side a large platform stood in front of them. Spork jumped onto the platform between two long bamboo sticks, once he landed on the platform the sticks began to rhythmically move side to side, clanging together in the middle of the platform, then separating and hitting the ground on the edges of the platform with Spork dancing on the platform bouncing over and around the bamboo as it moved around. While Spork did this Gaufre threw large handfuls of confetti into the air, fans on the platform caused them to blow around making the dance look even more eye-catching. The crowd cheered as Spork danced around on the platform, and their cheers only grew louder as Spork jumped into the air, doing a flip and landing on his hands continuing the dance while doing a handstand. Spork swung his tail around as he did his dance, creating ice in the air making a mist around him and using this to make his movements look even more amazing. The dance slowly came to an end, with Spork leaping high into the air flipping backwards and landing on Gaufre’s raised hand. The audience cheered in excitement, Gaufre and Spork having made a great impression with their opening act. 

Albert walked onto the stage after Gaufre had bowed and walked away with Spork, “That was a grand performance by Gaufre and Spork, but don’t you worry, our tricks only get more and more exciting from here.” He smiled, snapping his fingers as the next trick appeared onto the stage, “ Our next performance is from our very own Marlene and her monster Rocket.” 

Marlene and Rocket made a bigger entrance, Marlene swinging down from the ceiling on a trapeze, glitter flowing down over the stage in a grand gesture as she swung lower towards the stage, Rocket hanging down from her hand before dropping and rolling onto the platform. Marlene swung past doing a flip and hitting another trapeze which swung side to side behind a large chest on the stage. 

Rocket picked up three blades stuck into the ground, he bounced up and down waiting for something, suddenly with a burst of confetti the chest burst open, three jack-in-the-box heads with targets on their faces pointing out in different directions the second they popped out, Rocket leapt into the air throwing the blades in quick succession as Marlene swung in an arc behind the three targets risking being hit if Rocket missed any of the targets, the audience gasped in both fear and anticipation. The targets suddenly bounced back one by one each having their targets hit in the dead center, confetti cannons firing off around the platform. The crowd cheered as Marlene did a flip off of the trapeze landing on the platform before bowing with Rocket the small stuffed Rabbit jumping into her arms shortly after. She left the stage, Albert introducing Tico and Maya as the next act. 

Maya’s act went by quickly. She danced around the stage flipping a large ball into the air as she did flips and tricks while it was in the air, catching it with her nose each time it landed, it ended with Maya launching it high into the air, Tico jumped on her back, she leapt onto the railing right in front of the stands where everyone sat, Tico tossing small trinkets to the audience as she sped around the stands before returning to the stage, Tico leaping into the air as she stood on her hind legs, Tico’s feet resting on her front paws as he caught the ball in one hand. The two ended their act and left the stage for Albert to announce Daisy’s performance next. 

Daisy slowly walked onto the stage as the large trampoline that her monster would use appeared, Mock ran onto the base of the trampoline ready to begin at Daisy’s word. She looked into the audience, the cheering gone replaced by everyone eagerly waiting for her trick to begin. She took a deep breath, her arms shaking just slightly as she did so. She wanted to ground to swallow her up, she was almost ready to sprint off the stage with how much fear she felt at that moment. 

But then a bell chimed, Mock had begun it’s trick, launching it self into the air with the trampoline soaring to the bar lining the top of the trick, it’s flower closing into a bud and hitting the bell a mechanism above it releasing multicolored lights into the air matching the noise of the bell. Mock descended back onto the trampoline, the monster's momentum allowing it to use the trampoline to launch itself back upwards towards the bell far above it again. Daisy watched as her monster bounced up and down doing tricks in the air while it descended from the bell the audience cheered for Mock as it did so. Before Daisy knew it the trick was over, without a single command from her. Mock looked up happily at her as it finished it’s trick, the two bowed quickly and left the stage. 

Once backstage Daisy knelt down and hugged Mock. “ Thank you for taking the lead, I couldn’t have done that without you.” Daisy whispered to her monster. Mock simply looked up at her happily. 

While Daisy and Mock had their happy moment Julio and Mystery were gearing up to go on stage. Mystery looked more than excited to perform in his first show while Julio looked about ready to run away, and he would have made a run for it if Nayuta hadn’t also volunteered to perform alongside him using her magic to give the closing act a bit more flair. Albert introduced the two to the crowd and they walked on stage. 

Mystery’s gadget was a large trapeze swing held up by a large balloon hovering over the center of the stage. Nayuta and Julio waved to the audience, while Mystery jumped on the trapeze and began to swing back and forth gaining momentum as he went. Nayuta played her tambourines using her magic to make multicolored lights in the shape of butterflies float into the air, Julio took a deep breath and began playing his accordion. His playing was shaky and less confident than usual, almost immediately as he started playing Mystery became shaky in his movements as well, the Piroro clung to the bar as he moved. Mystery’s happy outlook had completely vanished being replaced by nervousness matching how Julio felt. Nayuta glanced over worried, with Julio playing the anima recorder Mystery could feel what Julio was feeling and if this kept up the act would be a failure with both Julio and Mystery being too scared to do anything. 

“I’ll save him.” Marlene whispered as she began to walk on stage in an attempt to help Julio, but she was held back by Albert who placed a hand on her shoulder telling her to stop. 

“ Let him do this.” Albert whispered to her, “ He can do this Marlene, Nayuta is there for him and I don’t think there is anything stopping those two.” 

Marlene sighed and folded her arms “ You’re right, I know he can do this.” Marlene looked off towards the two on stage, Nayuta cheerfully doing her best to help Julio and Mystery. “ I’m just worried. I don’t like seeing him this upset.” 

“I know Marlene, I feel the same way, but right now the only thing that will make him feel better is us having faith in him.” Albert whispered, looking out at the two on stage as well. 

Nayuta danced using her magic to hide Mystery’s fear as the monster swung back and forth on the trapeze but it would only work for so long. Julio’s fear only grew seeing how Mystery struggled with his trick. He watched his monster struggle, memories of his Mocchi failing at it’s juggling trick before it ran away, the fear of Mystery doing the same if this didn’t go well. These fears seemed to surround him, he felt tears in his eyes and was ready to give up when something happened. 

A butterfly seemed to appear above his accordion, it floated up to him, it looked like one of the butterflies Nayuta could summon with her magic, but it was different somehow, it didn’t glow with a white light and more of a reflective color, it flew near his ear and he faintly heard a voice. 

“He can do this.” The voice said, sounding much like Alberts “ We have to have faith in him” As the voice stopped the reflective coloration on the butterfly dissipated and the white light the one’s summoned by Nayuta took over with the butterfly flying off to join the rest of it’s kind as Nayuta used them to keep the crowd entertained while Mystery struggled to keep the act up. 

More butterflies appeared around him, all echoing words of encouragement that sounded like his troupe talking to him, He wasn’t sure if the things he was hearing was an illusion from Nayuta’s magic or things his troupe was saying in reality, but it didn’t matter either way he was being told that everyone had faith in him and he felt like he wasn’t alone on the stage anymore, he felt like everyone was standing with him. His fear was slowly over powered by a feeling of belonging, as these feelings began to appear Mystery’s fear vanished too, the monster regaining it’s happy disposition from earlier. 

Mystery swung back and forth with more energy, the swinging of the trapeze gaining speed as it did so, until finally at the end of an arc forward Mystery let go flipping into the air several times before returning to the falling trapeze to continue swinging, Mystery continued to do this the audience cheering in amazement watching the small monster soar into the air and still manage to catch the trapeze bar as it lowered. The trick felt like it was nearing its end when Mystery gathered enough courage to pull a risky move. 

Mystery let go of the trapeze on an arc forward, and instead of going straight into the air the monster flipped backwards in the air, making a long arc backwards, moving at the same speed as the trapeze rope. Mystery landed on the top of the balloon holding the trapeze up using it to leap backflip into the air again, twirling backwards in time with the trapeze before he finished his stun just as the rope had swung to the other side of the balloon for him to catch. The audience gave a very loud cheer in response to this last trick in Mystery’s. Confetti launched into the air from confetti cannons set up around the stage.

The trick was quickly removed from the stage and the rest of the troupe walked onto the stage, Everyone held hands giving a large bow as the audience cheered. Albert took a step forward happily. 

“ Thank you to everyone who watched tonight's show, and to everyone who donated.” Albert announced while waving to everyone in the audience “ Speaking of the donations, I am happy to announce that we’ve made more than enough to help save the temple. Thank you everyone.”


	17. A Propeller Beanie and New Tasks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it, my favorite line in the whole game is said

The show had ended with confetti raining from the roof of the tent to celebrate the troupe having made enough money to help the temple. The audience had mostly left, a few people, mostly children, had run down to the stage to look at the monsters and excitedly say hello to the troupe. Daisy and Marlene were on a far left corner of the stage talking to the man who had sold them the gadgets they used for the show. 

“ That was a great show you two did amazing.” The man said, smiling at the two of them, “ My partners going to be jealous if he doesn’t get to see you perform.” 

“ Both Maroon and Alec will be jealous.” Said the person standing at the man’s side, Marlene had assumed this person was the man’s child. 

“ Well we’ll make sure to at least stop by and say hello to your partner when we visit Conga Conga, and I must thank you again Rhys the gadgets you sold us were amazing.” Daisy responded happily, “ And I’m not sure who Alec is but we’ll say hello to him too.” 

Rhys chuckled “ Alec is my other kid. He went with my partner to Conga Conga while Clay and I stayed here.” Rhys looked over at Clay who had run off to say hello to Tico the two almost immediately starting up a conversation. “ Well I shouldn’t keep you from talking to the other people here. Have a good night you two, and thank you again.” 

Rhys waved goodbye to the two as he walked over to Clay and Tico. Marlene and Daisy waved goodbye in response before turning and walking to Albert who had just gotten a break from saying hello to all the people from town who had recognized him and having to say thank you for what he had done for the temple. Albert looked relieved to be able to talk to Daisy and Marlene instead of everyone else as he saw the two walking over. Before he could say hello however Lana beat the two and had come running into Albert giving him a large hug. 

“Oh thank you Al, thank you so much.” Lana exclaimed as she hugged Albert, Albert took a step away from Lana as soon as he could, He even looked relieved to hear an angry voice call from across the stage. 

A man with short red hair came stomping across the room after he had yelled Albert’s name. The room went silent as he reached Albert, the man folded his arms glaring at Albert “ I see you’re still up to your old ways Albert.” 

Albert chuckled “ Is that really how you greet your brother after so many years Bernart?” Albert smiled at the man who he had just revealed to be his brother, much to the troupe’s shock. “ And I see I’m not the only one who hasn’t changed.’

Bernart glared at Albert “ You can’t judge me, my work is to make the town better unlike you who ran away.” Bernart scolded Albert, still glaring at his brother. “ Either way, I hope you know this little show you put on won’t help the blue whales forever.” 

“What do you mean it won’t help?” Albert retorted angrily. “ We’ve raised more than enough to keep you from ever laying a finger on that temple.” 

Lana looked embarrassed as she stood next to Albert, she looked over at a man who had also begun to walk towards the group. He wore a large sash signifying he was the mayor of the town, the name “Blue Whales” written across the sash. 

As the man reached them Lana spoke up meekly “ Well you see Albert, we may lose the deed to our half of the town soon.” Lana said, avoiding looking in Albert’s eyes. “ My father bet the role of mayor and the documents of Saint Balca on a monster battle that’s taking place tomorrow. We didn’t realize how strong the Red Orca’s had gotten and we’re not sure if we can win the battle.” 

Albert looked at Lana and the man standing next to her angrily “ Not only did you bet your Mayor ship, but you also bet the Balca documents? Those are supposed to be protected at all costs and you’re just gambling them away?” 

While Marlene wasn’t sure why the Balca documents were so important, she could tell the documents meant quite a lot judging by how furiously Albert had reacted to this news. Marlene took a step forward standing next to Albert trying to show that she had his back in this situation. 

“I’ll battle him then.” Marlene stated confidently, “ I doubt there is anyone who’s trained harder than our monsters, or anyone who’s beaten more than our monsters for that matter.” 

Bernart chuckled “Meet me on the battlefield tomorrow then, if you’re so confident.” He turned to leave laughing “ Can’t believe the Blue Whales are so weak that they rely on a bunch of circus people to protect them, how sad.” 

Lana looked up at Albert happily “ Oh thank you Al, I knew we could count on you to help us.” Lana’s cheerful attitude was ignored by Albert who motioned that he would like a word with Lana’s father. Albert and Lana’s father walked off to the side leaving Marlene, Daisy and Lana in the small group while the rest of the troupe walked over to them. 

“ Albert seems really serious about this.” Daisy muttered looking over at Albert who had begun scolding Lana’s father. “ I wonder why he’s on such bad terms with his brother too. Albert doesn’t seem like the type to make enemies like this.” 

“Al and Bernart weren’t always like this, the three of us used to be very close friends.” Lana smiled recounting the good times when the three were friends, Albert and Lana’s father had begun walking back to the group as she finished her story. “ It all changed one night however. I was sick, there was only one way to cure my sickness, a white flower that could be found deep in the Balca ruins. One night Al brought the flower, and I couldn’t help it so I confessed my feelings, after that night Bernart changed and the three of us just drifted apart.”

Albert had reached the group by the time she finished the story. “ I’ll talk to you later Lana for now I need to talk with my troupe.” Albert stated motioning for Lana and her father to leave. The two left, Lana happily waving goodbye to Albert as she left. 

The group stood in silence for a moment before Marlene finally spoke up. “ Albert you left because she confessed her feelings for you? That’s just cold.” Marlene folded her arms, a little disappointed that Albert would react to something in that manner. 

“ Marlene this is none of your business would you just stay out of it.” Albert snapped at Marlene, the troupe gasping having never seen Albert talk to anyone in the troupe in such a harsh tone. 

“Fine.” Marlene yelled, turning to leave and return to her room. 

“ Wait, hold on Marlene I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you” Albert called as she left, to no avail, She kept on walking. “ Oh this isn’t good I haven’t seen her this mad since the one incident.” 

“Incident?” Nayuta asked slightly confused, “ What made her mad before.” Nayuta’s questions were answered by Marlene stopping, angrily spinning around to yell. 

“A PROPELLER BEANIE.” Marlene yelled. Her answer didn’t make sense to the troup not sure how that could make anyone angry, but it seemed like that was going to be the best answer they were going to get. 

The troupe didn’t get much talking or planning done that night, Julio was pulled aside by Albert letting him know he would be the one fighting in the battle the next morning. Lambert offered to accompany Julio and Nayuta to the battle, but that was all the talking the troupe got in before they needed to split off and get sleep. The tent’s usually loud halls had become silent and awkward. Everyone went to their rooms for the night hoping tomorrow would help the troupe feel normal again, their hopes would be answered, but sometimes normal for the troupe isn’t a good thing as they would soon find out.


	18. Early Celebration

The next day Julio and Nayuta were getting ready to compete in the battle to save the Balca documents from the Red Orcas, Marlene still refused to speak to Albert, not wanting to give Albert the win for this argument. Tico and his Maya needed a day to rest so Nayuta and Julio had to bring Mock along as the third member of the team. Around the battlefield was a small crowd of people from both sides of the town eagerly awaiting to see the outcome of the battle. Bernart stood across from the two a smug look on his face, like he had already won the battle. 

“ Alright you’ve shown up, I hope you’re ready.” Bernart called, his voice full of confidence. “ I hope you know that none of you stand a chance against m-” Bernart was cut off however by a woman’s voice calling from the shadows behind him. 

“I’ll be the one to crush them.” Jhuchu called walking past Bernart confidently, a faint smile could be seen underneath the veil she wore over the lower half of her face. Julio instinctively took a step back, remembering how she was able to so easily defeat him in a battle last time. 

“What is she doing here?” Nayuta mumbled looking over at Jhuchu in a slightly panicked way. “ Regardless, Julio, we need to beat her.” 

Julio looked at Nayuta, fear in his eyes, “ I’m not sure we can beat her. She’s so strong compared to me, do you not remember the last time.” Jhuchu laughed from across the battlefield.

“Is that you conceding?” Jhuchu smiled “ If so I can just take those documents and leave.” 

“No he’s not conceding.” Nayuta yelled anger in her voice. 

“Then let us begin.” Jhuchu said, snapping her fingers summoning her two monsters. The two Jokers swung their robotic scyths around, ready for a fight. “ Don’t be afraid, they won’t completely destroy you.” Julio’s three monsters readied on the battlefield, waiting for Julio’s commands. Julio slowly stepped forward and prepared himself for the battle.   
Jhuchu’s Jokers launcher forward, both aiming their scythes for Spork, Mock leapt in front of the one on the left, the flower on its head closing into a bulb and launching upwards, uppercutting the joker with all the force Mock could muster. This gave Spork time to dodge the attack from the other Joker before taking the opening to use his new attack called Ice Pillar, the Joker being trapped in a pillar of ice for a moment before Spork charged into it knocking the ripper away. Mystery charged a beam launching an upgraded version of his U-Beam attack, the laser striking both Jokers. 

The Jokers rose from the ground in unison, launching a barrage of energy slashes through the air, striking the ground around Julio’s team. Spork and Mystery getting hit by the energy and being sent flying across the battlefield. Mock spun in place using his blizzard attack, a barrage of flower petals soared across the field striking the two Jokers and keeping them at bay while Spork and Mystery recovered. The Jokers weren’t able to recover in time to defend against Spork using his Piercing attack, the Ripper flashed across the field slashing at one of the Jokers. Mystery used his Belly plop attack crashing into the other Jokers mask with force, and with that both of the monsters fell to the ground unable to continue fighting.

The audience around the battlefield went silent for a moment before bursting into applause. Several people cheered for Julio and Nayuta. Clay and Rhys in the audience who had gotten to meet the two the night before. Nayuta hid her face from Julio as she started crying tears of joy. Julio looked around in shock having not processed what just happened. The three monsters jumped up and down happily. Mystery and Spork hugged each other both celebrating their victory over the monsters that had defeated them before. 

Jhuchu scoffed and started walking away. “ I underestimated them, oh well. I’ll still get what I want.” Jhuchu walked away ignoring Bernarts attempts to stop her from leaving.   
Marlene ran up to Julio revealing herself from her hiding spot in the stands. Albert ran to them from the other side of the stands. Tico, Daisy, Gaufre, and Lambert all running at them from their spot as a group in the stands. The troupe stood together and cheered. They celebrated for what felt like a half hour. Marlene and Nayuta both shared tears of joy for Julio having seen him come so far since their journey had begun in Colno. Albert pulled Julio in for a large hug, Albert was so proud of Julio, these feelings mixed with him being thankful for Julio having just saved the town he grew up in. 

The celebration was cut short by the panicked yells of Grizzel as she ran to Albert with a look of pure terror in her eyes. “ Please Albert It’s Lana, something happened.” Grizzel took Albert’s hand and led him to the Mayor's office where Lana was. Bernart followed quickly after hearing something had happened. 

Minutes later the troupe accompanied by Bernart, were in Lana’s room. She rested against the wall holding her arm. She looked in pain as she looked up at them. “ That woman with the red cloak stormed in here and stole the Balca documents, she said something about the ruins and left” 

“The ruins? What could she want there.” Albert asked while making sure Lana was okay. 

“ It doesn’t matter, I’ll take the two that beat her in battle and we’ll head for the ruins, I know the area better than anyone and they’ll need a guide.” Bernart announced, Albert nodded in agreement to this statement. 

“I’m going too.” Marlene stated. “ Mock needs some rest so I can take Rocket with us as well.” 

Bernart sighed “ Doesn’t matter to me, as long as we get out there soon.” Bernart turned to leave the room. “ I’ll be waiting for you all by the exit to the town, you better meet me there soon.” With that Bernart left with Marlene, Julio, and Nayuta following suit. 

The three gathered their monsters and met Bernart where he told them to meet him. He wasted no time and departed into the desert. He warned them that they could encounter Noramon while in the desert but with their strength the Noramon wouldn’t be much of a problem. 

After a few minutes they arrived in the entrance to the long path that would lead up to the ruins. The sand blowing in the wind around them and the wind howling as it whirled around them. Large but old pieces of a building were scattered around buried under the sand. Marlene wasn’t sure why but she felt like this was going to be the teams most difficult journey yet.


	19. The Timpano Desert and Balca Ruins

“The Ruins are just down this road.” Bernart remarked looking around the area just in case any Noramon were hidden around them. “ I suggest we hurry, whatever that woman is looking for it can’t be good.” 

As the group walked down the path Marlene spoke up “ What’s got you so upset? You aren’t planning on taking the documents from us when we get them from her are you?” Marlene questioned showing how little she trusted Bernart at the moment. 

“ She would have stolen them from me if I had won the battle, she was planning on betraying me and I won’t let that go.” Bernart stated as he walked faster, pulling ahead of the group again, only coming to a halt once he noticed a figure standing on top of some of the sunken ruins. “ YOU!!” 

Woo turned around as Bernart called out to him. “ Oh, well, well, looks like someone finally caught on.” Woo chuckled “ I would love to stay and chat to hear how furious you are, but I have better things to do.” Woo laughed as he jumped into the air landing on a nearby boulder he bowed before using his magic to speed off further down the path. 

“That man was the same one we met in Grabad, If both him and Jhuchu are here then this can’t be good.” Nayuta remarked as she walked ahead chasing after Woo. “ We can’t let him get away, who knows what they might want.” 

Marlene and Julio nodded following Nayuta down the sandy path, this quick run didn’t go well for them as almost right away Julio was nearly pulled into a pit of sand that gave way under him. Marlene grabbed his hand and helped him up before he was buried under the sinking sand. 

Bernart sighed “ I told you we need to be careful, this desert holds many traps such as that one.” Bernart tossed a rock further ahead revealing another sinkhole in the sand. “ Follow my lead and we’ll get through here much faster.” 

Without any response Bernart took the lead again, navigating the group around the several sinkholes that littered the area. This proved to be a difficult task as some of the holes would open on their own and drag anything nearby into them, Nayuta having to avoid a large rock that was unearthed and pulled closer to the sinkhole that unearthed it. Once they reached the end of that area they came to a large cliff with a path leading to the side of it with barely enough room for the group to walk on it without falling down into the sandy depths below it, however Bernart stopped the group warning them of someone approaching. The group readied themselves for a battle when Dotty and Petty stumbled around the corner, both looking heavily exhausted. 

“Oh, it’s just them We’ll be fine.” Julio remarked, “ We don’t have to worry about them.” 

“...How .. dare youuu” Dotty managed as he took a few breaths. “ I would pummel you right now if it weren’t for this scorching heat.” 

“ Hey did you two see a scary woman pass by.” Nayuta asked, ignoring the fact that Dotty just said he would have fought them. 

“ Oh yes we saw a scary woman, I couldn’t even bring myself to ask her for directions when she passed us.” Petty said having gained more composure than Dotty while speaking. 

“Well you two should head to the town just down the road. You two look like you could use a rest.” Marlene said pointing down the road to where the town was. 

“Of course, I knew we were heading the right way.” Dotty said feigning confidence even in his exhausted state. 

“ Wild Monsters couldn’t drag the words thank you from us, even if you did just help us.” Petty said slowly walking past the group. “ But you all better look out. We’ll get you next time.” 

“You’ll rue the day you messed with the Violet cats.” Dotty called as he followed Petty’s lead down the path. 

“What was that all about?” Bernart asked, looking very confused as the two made their way to town.

Marlene sighed “ I’ll explain on the way.” And with that the group continued down the path, Marlene explaining who the violet cats were to Bernart as they did so. 

The group walked down the path looking around for any sign of Jhuchu or Woo. They came to several small tornadoes made of sand whirling through the area with the wind beginning to pick up again. Bernart took a moment before leading the group around the tornadoes, and saving Nayuta from falling off the cliffside as the sand gave out under her. The group sprinted to safety after that scare, ending up in a large entrance to the ruins. Rocks blocking the entrance to the left of them. 

“Nayuta are you okay? That was a close call.” Julio asked while Bernart ran ahead to check the area. 

“I’m fine, just startled me is all.” Nayuta chuckled trying to calm down. 

“These ruins might not be any better so we need to be even more careful than before.” Marlene said looking at the state of the ruins as Bernart walked back to the group. 

“They blocked the direct path, we’ll need to take the long way around here.” Bernart said, sounding more urgent. “ Follow me” Bernart led the group through the right entrance to the ruins. 

The ruins were barely holding up, some walls looked like a single hit would knock them over with ease. Noramon roamed the area forcing the group to hide under fallen pillars and other parts of the ruins that littered the floor. Marlene narrowly avoided a Noramon Tiger that just missed finding her at one point urging the group to move faster. Once through the main area they came to a long hallway with several rooms spreading outwards through it. There were several windows carved into the walls giving the group some light as they walked through the hall. Nayuta looked at the carvings left in the walls around them, she felt like she could recognize some of the carvings. She didn’t have time to focus on this however as Bernart pulled them into a room in the center of the hallway. They walked up the stairs into a large room. 

“Wait here I need to look for something.” Bernart said leaving the rest of the group in the large room as he walked to a side room quickly looking for something. 

The room was lined with stone pillars, large vases, and at the end of the room stood a large tablet with an ancient language written across it. Nayuta walked up to the table curiously looking at the letters for a moment before she realized what she was reading. 

“This is Tochikan writing.” Nayuta exclaimed. “ But why would tochikan writing be all the way out here.” 

“What does it say?” Julio asked curiously looking at the table.

“Give me a second.” Nayuta mumbled reading over the tablet. “ It says ‘ The war is over, the beast and the people who once attacked us have no power. The high priest has ordered the land where the final battle took place to be the tomb of the once vile beast that attacked us. The Priestess Balca shall reside in a nearby town and watch over this land to the best of her abilities. ’” 

Marlene took a moment to think “ Well I can assume this means the Warp people and your ancestors fought here before the ruins were built, but what would they make this place a tomb for?” Marlene asked her question, realizing the answer as she spoke, she looked at Nayuta who had come to the same conclusion. 

“ The beast is Moo, but if Moo’s disk is buried here. Then that must be what Jhuchu and Woo are looking for.” Nayuta quickly walked towards the exit of this room. “ If they use the disk to revive Moo then we could be in serious danger and we need to stop them.” Nayuta was already walking back down to the hallway. 

“Nayuta I hate to say this but we need to wait for Bernart. Without Him who knows what we’ll encounter.” Marlene called running after Nayuta leaving Julio to go get Bernart. 

Julio walked into the side room to see Bernart holding a plant in his hand, he noticed Julio and quickly stuffed the plant into his bag. “ I thought I told you to wait there,” Bernart snapped, sounding slightly embarrassed. 

“Sorry, Nayuta and Marlene have run ahead, I’m making sure you didn’t get left behind.” Julio said, looking curiously at Bernart as the two ran to catch up to Nayuta and Marlene who had stormed off. “ Also what was that plant for? Is it something we’ll need?” 

Bernart simply looked away from Julio “ Doesn’t matter we need to catch up to your friends.” As he said this Marlene and Nayuta yelled from the room at the end of the hall followed by Woo’s laughter. 

Bernart and Julio sprinted ahead to see Marlene and Nayuta trapped in a room with several Noramon walking around them. The entrance and exit to the room blocked off by a large metal gate that slid into place. 

“This should keep you two busy, only when the Noramon are gone will the gates be opened.” Woo sneered, before the group could hear his footsteps leaving the area and the Noramon all becoming monsters to launch an ambush on the two and the monsters Nayuta had just brought to their aid. 

Spork took on a Mocchi and Pixie right away, using his tail to smack the two away from Nayuta and Marlene. Mystery was caught fighting a Piroro and Gitan, the three launching ranged attacks back and forth, leaving the small Eared Mew that was Rocket to fight off a Zan. 

Rocket pulled a large needle out of his body, the needle glowing with static electricity as he tossed it at the Zan, This was only a distraction as while the Zan dodged Rocket leapt into the air headbutting the Zan causing the Zan to stumble back leaving an opening for Rocket to use his 10:10 attack. Rocket lunged punching the Zan ten times in a rapid motion, just barely could be seen a metal poke out of his hands appearing in the colors white, red, green, blue, and yellow. Once the attack was finished Rocket did a small pose, the dramatic nature of the monster getting the better of him. Mystery used an S-Ice boom attack to take down his opponents, while Spork took down his opponents with his tail blade attack, and with that the Noramon were gone from the room allowing the gates to rise up. 

Marlene held her left arm in pain having been hit by one of the Gitans attacks that Mystery hadn’t been able to stop, Nayuta had a few scratches left on her legs and arms from attacks narrowly missing her. Both denied any trouble and forced the group to keep going. They walked outside of the room leading to another large area in the ruins, they weaved through a large maze of fallen pillars and parts of the ceiling that had collapsed long ago. 

This room led to a small outside area before a very large staircase. The wind having picked up very heavily now the group could hardly see up the staircase due to the brewing sandstorm. Just before the stairs was the jar Baja resided in. Nayuta ran forward placing her hand on the jar so she could speak to Baja. 

The monster burst from the Jar only to return after giving this message. “ I cannot stay here, long. I simply say, ahead is the tomb of a terrible monster. Do not let those who wish to use his power acquire his disk.” Baja returned to his jar but his warning was clear. The group turned to steadily make their way up the stairs. The sandstorm grew worse but the group could make out the large building ahead of them, the roof looked to be stained glass which had shattered in certain places. The inside was lined with old scrolls and other ancient texts. Before anyone said anything they could hear Jhuchu talking to Woo from across the large building.   
“ Woo we need to hurry. This is important, and if we can’t find this then our whole plan is ruined” Jhuchu yelled digging through a pile of rubble, her voice turning softer as she followed up her yelling “ I can’t let this plan fail. I must make them feel the pain that I’ve felt.” 

Bernart took a step forward and accidentally kicked a rock alerting Woo and Jhuchu that they were there. “ Miss they’ve caught up, what shall we do?” Woo asked as he and Jhuchu turned to face the group. 

Jhuchu’s voice turned to one of malice, her usual cold tone gone replaced by one of pure hatred. “ Silence Woo, I shall deal with them, you keep looking” She walked towards the group glaring at all of them. “ I will not let any of you stop us. I held back before, but now I’m not holding anything back. I’ll do everything I can to stop you.” 

“You won’t stop us. We won’t let you do this, We’ll keep trying to stop you as long as we’re still standing” Nayuta called stepping towards angrily while the rest of the group held back feeling almost afraid of Jhuchu. 

Jhuchu glared at Nayuta “ I will not hold back any longer. If it means your demise then so be it, I’m not letting anyone get in our way anymore.” Jhuchu screamed. Her two Jokers dropped from the ceiling slowly floating towards each other as she spoke “ I, Jhuchu, Queen of the Warp world. Will not let ANYONE. Stop me from avenging my people.” 

Before anyone else could respond Jhuchu’s jokers met behind her, both fusing with a bright light. The light grew and grew until it was only a few feet from the ceiling. A large joker emerged from the light, it’s mask showed a metallic face, as it ticked to the right like the hands of a clock before jittering back to it’s center. The eyes on the mask twitching madly, it’s cloak was a beige color with several patches being a deep brown.It held a large staff made of the same rusted metal that it’s large floating arms were made out of. Behind it was an energy that used to make up the scyths of it’s smaller versions before they fused. 

Jhuchu pointed at the group standing in front of the large monster   
“Daja, end them” Jhuchu’s monster took the command and let out a loud laugh, it’s deep voice ringing through the room as it laughed with glee. Nayuta summoned their three monsters to fight the giant in front of the. Tension was high as Marlene took command telling the monsters what to do as they faced Daja. 

Marlene had Mystery take the lead, he leapt into the air using his belly plop attack. Launching himself towards Daja’s mask, Mystery was stopped by Daja using the energy behind his back as a shield. Mystery bounced off the shield while Marlene yelled for Rocket to use his Sing attack to distract Daja, it worked, but not well as Daja thrust the end of it’s staff towards Rocket. The small monster was only barely able to avoid it as Spork picked him up and ducked out of the way. Spork set Rocket down and used his tail to fling himself into the air, redying his blades to slash Daja. He was stopped by Daja grabbing his tail and throwing his back towards the ground. 

“This isn’t going well.” Marlene mumbled trying to think of a new plan. 

She didn’t have the time to think as Daja opened the mouth on it’s mask and released a flood of poison gas. Mystery barely having time to save the group with his Storm Cutter attack releasing two blades made of air, the air collided with the gas and expanded creating a small opening in the gas allowing everyone to stand in a group safely avoiding the attack. After the opening was created Spork launched Rocket and Mystery into the air. Mystery grabbing Rocket and launching both forward with his Belly Plop attack which was now coupled with Rocket’s Head Butt attack. The two colliding with Daja’s mask managing to deal the first bit of damage. Daja yelped in shock as the attacks collided. 

“Spork now.” Marlene yelled, commanding her monster to launch himself forward, cutting through the cloth that represented Daja’s body. Daja yelped again, clearly showing that they didn’t need to just hit the mask where it’s face should be. “We’ve got him weaker, let’s keep this going everyon-” 

Marlene was cut off by Daja taking that moment to swat Rocket out of the air, Mystery took the hit pushing Rocket to the side. Mystery slammed to the ground with a large amount of force before bouncing away Julio running forward to hold the monster. Daja laughed and sent another attack towards Julio this time. The staff barely missed Julio as Spork hit it from the side causing it to miss it’s target.

“Julio!!!” Nayuta yelled, running over to pull Julio and Mystery away from the battle after just seeing her friend nearly get hit by that attack.

“We can’t get any closer to that thing, It will attack us if it gets the chance.” Marlene called stepping in front of Julio and Nayuta as the two returned from standing on the battlefield. 

Spork and Rocket continued fighting, losing energy as they did so. Spork was barely able to dodge a few of Daja’s staff attacks and Rocket did his best to throw his Zap attack at Daja, but he was running out of needles to throw. Daja was slowly having his health chipped away, but the monster kept on attacking like it was nothing. Spork jumped to try and attack one of Daja’s arms only to get hit by the monster staff and swatted away. Rocket took this chance to climb up Daja’s cloak using needles pointing out of his hands to climb up to Daja’s mask. Spork used the last of his energy to launch towards the roof of the building. Rocket struck first a fan of needles spreading from his hand as he slashed downwards from behind the mask. Spork used his blade as he launched downwards from the ceiling at the same time this time from the front of the mask. Once these two attacks had passed three large Ice spikes collided with Daja’s mask, Mystery stood proudly across the room having launched the attack. 

Daja screamed as his mask shattered, he fell to the ground, all of his components vanishing except for parts of his mask that were still scattered around the room. 

Jhuchu looked completely shocked seeing her monster fall to the ground. “ How? How did you manage to do that.” 

“My, My, Miss it seems you aren’t as strong as you seem.” Woo sneered as he walked towards Jhuchu. 

“ Silence Woo. Have you found it.” Jhuchu snapped backing away from the group who were slowly walking towards her. 

“I have found it Miss, We can leave now.” Woo said holding up a grey disk. 

“No” Nayuta yelled, sprinting towards the two, but it was too late Jhuchu had summoned a portal and the two were transported away as Jhuchu said.

“ I win.” Jhuchu’s voice rang through the room as she vanished with Woo and the disk

Nayuta fell to her knees once she had stopped running. Julio and Marlene stood at her sides as tears slowly rolled down Nayuta’s cheeks, the silence only broken by Nayuta’s voice as she said. 

“I’ve failed”


	20. Leaving Tongue Bool

Nayuta sat on her knees, tears still falling down her face as she sobbed into Julio’s shoulder, Marlene had her hand pressed to Nayuta’s back as she stood behind her. Bernart was at the back of the room searching through papers for the Balca documents, hoping that Jhuchu and Woo had left them behind. 

“ I failed. They have Moo’s disk, they’ll bring him back and destroy the world and it’s all my fault.” Nayuta sobbed, burying her face into Julio’s shoulder. 

“ We haven’t failed entirely, we can still stop them from getting Moo’s horn in Conga Conga right?” Julio asked, doing his best to comfort Nayuta. “ They may have beaten us to this, but that doesn’t mean we’ve lost all together.” 

Nayuta continued to sob, “ Julio, they still have the disk, we may never get that back We don’t know what they might do.” 

Marlene sighted softly crouching down next to Nayuta “ We may not be able to get the disk back, but we can still stop them from getting the horn.” Marlene’s voice full of determination “ There’s no way they’ll be able to stop us from getting the horn first I promise you that.” 

Nayuta looked over at Marlene, her eyes full of tears. “ How do you know that Marlene, they were able to get here before us and stall for more than enough time to get the disk.” 

Marlene nodded “ They may have been able to get the disk, but our monsters fought hard and defeated them in the end, I know our monsters will be able to beat them even faster the next time we fight them if they need to.” 

As Marlene said this Spork made his way over to Nayuta , giving her a hug and making a soft purring noise. Mystery and Rocket also joined Spork group hugging Nayuta doing their best to make sure she was okay. Nayuta’s sobs were slowly brought to a halt as the monsters comforted her. 

“ Nayuta we can do this, nothings going to stop us.” Julio said, pressing his hand against Nayuta’s shoulder. “ No one can stop us if we keep working hard.” 

Before Nayuta could respond Bernart called to the group “ I found the documents, we should head back now” Bernart placed the documents carefully into a pack he had been carrying with him. “ I don’t mean to ruin the sappy feelings but we can be sappy back at town.” 

Marlene sighed angrily “ I can also give you what for back at town” She hissed, glaring at Bernart. 

Bernart awkwardly chuckled “ I don’t mean to sound rude, force of habit it all being the leader of the Red Orcas I need to be harsh like that all the time.” He looked at Marlene knowing he would be completely outclassed in a monster battle against her. “ I just mean we should get going to reassure Lana and Albert that we’re okay.” Bernart quickly turned and made his way down the steps of the ruins. 

Julio laughed “ Wow Marlene, you’re scary to everyone you stand up against huh?” He continued to laugh as he and the rest of the group followed Bernart down the steps. 

“He doesn’t scare me, Lamber taught me a thing or two when I still lived in the castle so monster battle or not, he wouldn’t stand a chance.” Marlene smirked 

Nayuta stayed at the back of the group, looking down at a fragment of Daja’s mask that she had picked up, the grey metal reflecting the desert sun making it shine slightly. The fragment felt almost sinister to hold, Nayuta could feel so much dark anima infused with the metal, feelings of hatred, anger and sorrow all combined into the mask. Nayuta almost felt bad for Jhuchu, she couldn’t imagine feeling all of these negative emotions at once. 

Nayuta was snapped out of her thoughts as Baja appeared using his magic to send the group back to the outskirts of Tongue Bool, Lana doing her best to meet the group as they walked to town, her leg still hurt from when Jhuchu attacked her for the Balca documents. Albert stood at her side keeping her steady as she limped over to the group. Bernart took the documents out of his bag and handed them to Lana. 

“ Thank you so much, I knew you all could do this.” Lana cheered holding the documents close. “ Al is a great leader. I'm sure he trained you all to be so strong.” 

Marlene was about to protest when Julio cut her off “ Albert is a great leader, he always keeps us on schedule and makes sure we get training done.” 

Marlene chuckled “ That is true.” She looked up at Albert who gave her a soft smile. 

Bernart cleared his throat taking out the flower he had found in the ruins earlier. “ Lana, I’ve heard plants like these can help with injuries. Maybe you could use it?” 

Lana looked at the flower and up at Bernart before angrily smacking it out of his hand. “ Do you really think I’d forgive you like that, copying what Albert did for me when I was sick all those years ago, how sad are you?” 

Bernart was about to apologize when Albert interrupted him. “ We can’t keep this up anymore, Bernart I’m telling her the truth.” Albert said as he looked down at Lana. 

“ Albert no, you promised you wouldn’t tell her.” Bernart called, trying to stop Albert, but it was too late. 

“ Lana, Bernart was the one who gave you the herb to help you when you were sick all those years ago.” Albert revealed, Lana looking up at him in disbelief. “You admitted your feelings for me to him that night, He told me the next morning and since then we’ve promised to act like it was really me who helped you that night.” 

Lana glared up at Albert. “ I don’t believe you, there’s no way he would help me like that, you were the one who always…” She paused thinking about what she was saying before a look of realization appeared on her face “ Bernart always talked about the plants in the desert and how they can help people. He went out of his way to get them even.” 

Bernart sighed “ Yes, I was the one who brought you the flower, I gave you my last one that night.” He paused, not sure how to proceed with what he was going to say next. “ I don’t regret giving you the flower that night, even if it’s what caused the three of us to drift apart.” 

Lana glared at Bernart “ LIAR” She yelled startling everyone, “ YOU BOTH JUST THOUGHT IT WOULD BE BETTER TO MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME FOR ALL THOSE YEARS.” Tears formed in her eyes as she nearly screamed at all of them. 

Albert looked at Nayuta, Julio, and Marlene with a sad look in his eyes. “ Maybe it’s time we left. Let’s head back to the tent and start packing.” Albert said as the group followed him to the tent, Lana storming off angrily ignoring the pain her leg was in, leaving Bernart behind.   
The day after this occurred everyone had finished packing and the tent was ready to head off towards Conga Conga. Albert stood outside reading a letter that had been delivered to him that morning, he smiled while reading it before noticing Lana and Bernart approaching him. 

Lana looked embarrassed as she approached Albert, “ I want to say I’m sorry for reacting the way I did yesterday Al.” She looked over at Bernart avoiding eye contact with Albert “ We came to wish you well, and to say Bernart and I will be working to make Tongue Bool a better place.” 

Bernart smiled “ The Red Orca’s and Blue Whales merged their powers this morning. With our combined productivity we’ll be able to bring Tongue Bool back to its former glory.” 

Albert smiled at the two “ That’s amazing, I’ll have to bring the Troupe back some time to see how far you two will go working together.” He sighed “ I’m glad we could bring this feud to an end Brother, I do wish I could stay longer but we do need to head out, we also have an important mission we need to accomplish.” 

Lana reached and grabbed Albert’s hand as he turned to leave. “ Do you really need to leave Albert, to leave us, to leave me?” Lana looked up at Albert. 

Albert smiled “ Lana, I do wish I could stay, but our mission is very important, and even so.” Albert paused looking down at the letter he had been reading “ I have my family in the circus and others that I’m looking out for now. I have someone I hold very dear that I need to return to one day.” 

Lana chuckled “ Well you better make that person feel like the most important person in the world, I’m sure their very luck to have you Albert.” 

Bernart smiled “ Best of luck bro. I know you all can complete this mission, you’ve got quite the strong team with you.” Bernart waved goodbye as Albert stepped into the caravan. Lana tearfully waved goodbye as well watching the Caravan pull away from Tongue Bool, Albert waving goodbye to the two as they became more and more distant. 

“ Goodbye you two.” Albert muttered,wiping the tears from his eyes watching his former family vanish on the horizon.


	21. Conga Conga

The troupe arrived at the jungle village that is Conga Conga, Gaufre nervously looking around at the village as they unpacked the tent and looked around to explore. Lambert stood next to him making sure Gaufre wasn’t getting too nervous, he spoke of stories and adventures he had gone on during his time working for the castle. Tico happily listened to Lambert sitting on Gaufre’s shoulder to get a better view of the area around them. 

Daisy and Marlene walked ahead of the group, their footsteps could be heard as they stepped against the wooden platforms that kept the town above the muddy land of the jungle and the sandy beaches along the coast. Albert, Julio, and Nayuta went off into the marketplace gathering food and other supplies for the troupe before rejoining the group to follow Guafre’s direction with food in hand this time. 

The group reached a large metal gate which Gaufre opened for them, leading into a plaza with a large statue of a bird in the center of it. People in masks similar to Gaufre’s walked around the plaza, most ignoring the troupe aside from one girl with a pink short sleeve shirt and blue shorts. She almost ran over to Gaufre, her blond pigtails nearly hitting Marlene as she ran past her.

“ Gaufre you’re back, Does this mean you’re finished with your spiritual training??” The girl asked looking up at Gaufre 

“Um well you see Minudoll, the thing is….” Gaurfre stammered, only to be totally ignored by Minudoll 

“ Follow me, we need to tell Mamma right away.” Minudoll called walking to an exit in the plaza. 

“Wow We get to meet Gaufre’s mom.” Tico asked, excitedly his feet kicking back and forth as Gaufre walked. 

Lambert chuckled “ I’m sure she’s a very kind woman to have raised you to be the man you are today Gaufre.” 

“ Maybe she can help us find the horn we’re looking for” Julio mentioned looking over at Nayuta who nodded in response. 

The group quickly reached a large house at the top of a wooden staircase. Minudoll stood in front of it with a woman who everyone assumed to be Gaufre’s mother, she was taller than Gaufre and from the look of it, she was most likely stronger than Gaufre too. Her mask resembled a large lion it’s mane a golden metal with its teeth an almost ivory color

The woman raised her arms happily as Gaufre approached “ Welcome home my boy. I trust that your journeys allowed you to grow and move greatly in your spiritual training.” 

“Well you see Mama, the thing is…”Gaufre was cut off by his mother. 

“You haven’t grown your anima a single bit have you?” She asked, a slight hint of disappointment in her voice. “ Gaufre you know how important your training is you mustn't slack off.” 

“You know about anima??” Nayuta interrupted curiously, everyone turning to look at her as she did so.

“ Nayu don’t interrupt her. She could squash you with one step.” Tico said, looking at Gaufre’s mother with an intimidated look. 

Marlene scoffed “ Tico don’t be rude.” 

Gaufre’s mother simply laughed “ I like these two, it takes guts to speak about me like that.” She stuck out her hand for Tico to shake his hand, Tico slowly shook her hand. “ You can call me Big Mama, and yes I know about anima, as a village leader it’s only fitting I work to make myself strong physically and spiritually.” She looked at Nayuta. 

“ Wow, that’s amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with anima as strong as yours now that I think about it. I can sense it from a few feet away, even our village leader would be impressed.” Nayuta looked up at Big Mama with amazement in her eyes. 

Big Mama laughed “ Ah I see now, you must be from Tochika yes? I’ve heard good stories of your culture. Maybe Gaufre hasn’t been slacking off on his training after all.” She turned to look at Gaufre. “ However, you know the Envoy of MaoMao must be strong enough to act alone, and not rely on friends.” 

Marlene scoffed “ That doesn’t seem fair, we’re his friends we should be able to stand by his side, we’ve all grown with him.” Marlene folded her arms and looked up at Big Mama. 

Gaufre looked at Marlene in shock. “ Marlene, what are you doing.” 

“ Oh my, is that a challenge I hear?” Big Mama asked, her tone full of amusement. “ If that’s how you feel then why don’t we put that to the test?” 

Lambert chuckled “ Marlene can face any test you give her, she’s a strong woman.” Lambert spoke confidently standing next to Marlene “ She’s been trained by the greatest trainer in all of Marche after all” 

“Please everyone let’s not argue, I should train more and be the envoy myself.” Gaufre interjected, trying to get his point across. 

“ How about this, I’ll let you all discuss this and come to your tent tomorrow.” Big Mama looked at Gaufre and said, “ I hope you make the correct decision.” 

With that the troupe left to return to the tent, Gaufre looked very worried as they reached the tent. Lambert and Tico stayed with Gaufre in the tent for a bit, comforting him and making sure he knew that the troupe was with him when he needed them. 

“Gaufre the whole troupe is here for you, everyone is more than happy to help if they need to.” Lambert said quietly, “ I’ve learned from my time at Marche that sometimes it’s best to work with friends rather than work alone.” 

Gaufre sighed “ It’s tradition for the envoy to go alone to meet Mao Mao, I doubt Mama would want to break tradition just for me.” Gaufre spoke in a hushed voice “ She does her best to hold up the traditions and values our culture has and I don’t want to put her in that position.” 

Tico hugged Gaufre, or at least Gaufre’s arm while Lambert spoke “ Well sometimes we work better as a team, having allies to help makes you stronger not weaker.” 

Gaufre put his head in his hands “ You’ll have to tell that to Mama tomorrow then Lambert.” 

Lambert smiled “I would be happy to, my duty here is to support you all and that’s just what I’ll do.” With that Lambert stood to leave the entrance “ I’ll go speak with Big Mama now, I shall return shortly.” 

“Wait Lambert please don’t” Gaufre called standing to follow Lambert, pausing to lift Tico onto his shoulder like usual. 

“ There’s no need to worry Gaufre, I wasn’t called the Negotiator of Marche for nothing” Lambert called as he left the room, moving quickly out of view. 

Gaufre sighed “ I hope he was actually called that, It’ll take a lot of convincing to get Mama to agree to breaking tradition like that.”


	22. Lambert?

Marelene and Daisy had left the tent to deliver the letter they had promised to deliver when they were still in Tongue Bool. The two were talking absentmindedly while walking to the shopping area. Once they reached the shopping area Marlene paused looking very confused at what was in  
front of her. 

“Is that a Mew? Talking to a cat?” Marlene gestured to the Mew(?) making meowing sounds to talk to a cat that was laying in the sun. 

“ I’m not sure??” Daisy responded, tilting her head slightly having never seen a Mew that looked quite like this. “ It almost looks like a real cat, but normal cat’s don’t look like that.” 

The Mew(?) noticed them staring and happily waved at them “ Hello, my name is Toro it’s so nice to meet you.” Toro happily called at the two. 

Marlene and Daisy looked at each other both very shocked. “ Wait, you can speak??” Marlene asked as Toro happily walked over to them. “ I didn’t know Mew’s could speak our language.” 

Toro chuckled “ Oh I’m not a Mew I’m a normal cat.” He did a little pose after saying this. “ Well for now at least.” 

“For now?” Daisy asked curiously, kneeling down to be at eye level with Toro. “ What does that mean?”

“I want to be a human some day!” Toro said happily, almost zoning out as he began to talk about his dream of wanting to be a human “ I heard the Mao Mao statue can grant wishes so I want to wish to be a human, it sounds so so cool and people like you can perform in a circus and that’s so so coooool.” 

Marlene chuckled “ Wow you're pretty ambitious aren’t you.” She paused “You are already a talking cat, so I don’t see why you can’t be a human one day.” 

Daisy stood up smiling “ Why don’t we wish for Toro too? After we deliver the letter of course.” Daisy looked down at Toro, who looked incredibly happy. 

“ Would you really??” Toro asked, doing his best not to yell with excitement “ That’s so nice of you.” 

“Of course, we’re part of a circus after all it’s our job to make people happy.” Daisy responded, Marlene was about to follow that up but they were interrupted by a voice calling from the shop behind Toro. 

“ Toro I got that fish you were looking for.” A boy around Julio’s age called, his mask was different from everyone elses, only covering the upper half of his face, it was mottled after the eyes and antenna of a bee. 

Toro spun around happily “ Yay! Fish!” Toro ran over and quickly grabbed the fish holding it happily “ Thank you Alec, tell your dad I said Thank you too.” And with that Toro began to leave the area happily taking bites of his fish as he went. 

“He’s certainly an interesting cat.” Marlene commented watching Toro leave. 

Daisy directed her attention to Alec, as the boy picked up the cat Toro was talking to “Hey do you know anyone named Maroon? We’re supposed to deliver a letter to him.” 

Alec smiled “ Of course I know him, he’s my dad.” Alec answered motioning for the two to follow him “ He’s inside, follow me.” 

Marlene and Daisy followed Alec into the small building, along the sides of the store were several wooden platforms holding different items, the wooden platforms rising up towards the roof of the building. A man sat at the back of the room, his mask similar to Alec’s except his mask was modeled after a ram rather than a bee. 

“Dad, these two have a letter for you.” Alec called walking towards a door leading to the rest of the building. 

Marlene handed the man the letter, he read it with a smile across his face before looking up at the two “ My partner sent you two all the way from Tongue Bool just to send me a letter?” Maroon chuckled “ Well thank you, would you two like anything from the store? I need to repay you both somehow.” 

“Oh no, your husband already gave us items to pay us for this, we couldn’t take anything for free like that.” Marlene responded, giving a small smile to Maroon “ Thank you for the offer however.” 

Maroon waved his hand dismissing what Marlene was saying “ I insist, here I have some special items on this shelf I’ll find something for you.” He stood up and walked over one of the lower shelves in the store looking over a few of the items. 

“I hope I’m not rude, but may I ask why you and your son have different masks?” Daisy asked curiously, while Maroon continued to look over his items. 

“The masks of this town are for people who were born and raised here, Me and Alec were given our masks after Big Mama decided that we were always welcome here. She gave us this store and home and our masks as a gift.” Maroon responded “ She’s a very kind woman, and the whole reason me and my husband set up shop in Conga Conga so often.” 

Daisy nodded along as he spoke “ Wow that’s really nice of her.” 

“Yeah it was” Maroon paused for a moment “ Ah I found it” Maroon turned around with a small pendant in his hand, he handed it to Marlene who reluctantly took it. 

“Thank you.” Marlene said looking down at the small pendant, “Now we should get going.” 

Maroon nodded “ Of course, thank you again for delivering the letter to me.” 

Marlene and Daisy waved goodbye as they left the store, Marlene tried to walk back to the tent only to be stopped by Daisy, urging them to go to the Mao Mao statue to make the wish for Toro. Marlene sighed agreeing to go to the statue but only if they returned to the tent immediately after. They made their way to the center plaza struggling to open the large iron gate for a moment before they walked towards the statue. 

“So how does this work? Do we just think of the wish?” Marlene asked looking up at the giant bird statue 

“I guess so, it’s like wishing on a star right?” Daisy responded, Marlene shrugged and ‘wished’ for Toro to be a human someday, this was interrupted by Big Mama making her way towards the two holding someone in her arms. 

“You two we need to go to your tent this instant.” Big Mama shouted not even pausing as she used her elbow to push open the door to leave the plaza. 

“ Wait hold on.” Marlene yelled running after Big Mama, “ What’s going on? Who are you holding?” Her question was answered right away as the sound of coughing was heard from the person in Big Mama’s arms. 

“Wait that sounded like…” Daisy said realizing who Big Mama was holding. 

“That was Lambert.” Marlene said, tears welling in her eyes as the three reached the tent, Big Mama made her way to the main area, finding a place for Lambert to rest before calling for Gaufre and Albert. 

The two quickly entered the room to see Lambert having another coughing fit. Albert quickly went to Lambert’s side checking to make sure he was okay, “ What happened?” 

Big Mama sighed “ It’s my fault, he challenged me saying your troupe was strong enough to help Gaufre be the envoy of MaoMao, so I told him if he could Conga Bananas from the jungle I would consider it.” She looked over at Lambert who was sitting with a smile on his face “ He found them, but the humidity of the jungle seems to have been too much for him.” 

Lambert chuckled “ As the axe of Marche I won’t let humid weather stop me from fighting a jungle to find some bananas.” His voice was low and horse, Albert hushing Lambert to make sure he would save his voice. 

Gaufre was almost in tears hearing this “ It should have been me going to get that fruit.” He paused for a moment angrily turning around. “ I’ll be the envoy myself, I’ll go meet MaoMao alone now.” 

Big Mama placed her hand on Gaufre’s shoulder, stopping him before he left. “ Gaufre, I want your friends to go with you.” She sighed before continuing “ I see now that you’ve grown so much, you’ve become a strong and caring person Gaufre and your friends are stronger because of you.” 

Gaufre turned around confused, “ What are you saying Mama?” 

Big Mama sighed “ I want your friends to go with you, they care deeply about you and if they’re willing to go this far for you, then I see them as envoys alongside you.” She turned to look at Marlene “ Go with Gaufre, he knows what he must do and where you all must go to find Mao Mao.” 

Gaufre nodded “ Thank you Mama, I promise I’ll make you proud.” With that he and Marlene left the room to get ready for this adventure. 

Big Mama chuckled watching her son go “ Don’t worry Gaufre, you already make me so proud.”


	23. Mao Mao's Jungle

Gaufre, Marlene, Albert, and Julio arrived at the entrance to Mao Mao’s jungle the path ahead nearly overgrown with vines, however parts of the vines had been cut down recently, most likely because of Lambert before the environment had gotten the best of him. The group followed Gaufre as he silently made his way through the jungle pushing past the vines and plants like he had done this a thousand times. 

“ So Gaufre what does being an envoy of Mao Mao mean?” Nayuta asked as she ducked under a branch doing her best to follow and not get tripped by any of the plants in her way. 

“ Once every 15 years an envoy is sent to bring Mao Mao fruit and receive his blessing over the village for 15 years.” Gaufre moved a fallen tree out of the way with ease while he spoke to the group “ An Envoy must be strong enough to pass through three challenges set before them which are used to protect Mao Mao.” 

Julio nodded “ Does that mean no one else can see Mao Mao?” Julio asked, sounding equally as curious as Nayuta. 

Gaufre nodded “ The magic guarding Mao Mao would need to be fought by an immense amount of force to break through their barrier.” Gaufre stopped looking around a large tree 

Marlene sighed “Unfortunately I don’t think that would have stopped the people of warp, seeing as they use magic as well.” Marlene looked at Nayuta who had now become very worried. “ But it would be hard to go unnoticed with Big Mama’s magic as well. Honestly she could probably beat Jhuchu’s monsters all by herself.” 

Gaufre laughed while kicking a hole in the roots of the tree they were stopped at revealing a hidden tunnel “Mama would certainly give them a hard time if they tried forcing their way through Mao Mao’s protection” He stepped into the tunnel, “ We’ll save time going through here.” 

The group stepped into the tunnel, several mushrooms lined the path all glowing in a light blue color, glowing vines tangled themselves through the roots of the tree above them. The air in the tunnel was almost cool and they could hear the very faint noise of moving water from somewhere else in the tunnel. Gaufre was hunched down avoiding the low hanging vines of the tunnel while the group followed behind. At what they assumed to be the end of their shortcut was a large wooden door surrounded by glowing flowers. 

“Those are crystal flowers.” Julio said leaning closer to the multicolored flowers around him. “ I’ve never seen them growing in the wild like this with how rare they are.” 

Nayuta nodded “ They’re like the flower Maya gave to Tico.” She leaned down and picked one “ I’m sure Tico would love another.” 

With that Gaufre led them through the wooded door, which opened into a large stone building most likely ruins from an older settlement in Conga Conga. They moved through the stone path into a clearing where two people were waiting for them. 

“ Hahaha, We knew you’d be here.” Dotty jeered “ Now prepare for defeat from the Violet Cats” 

“Yes, You may have been able to beat us with the help of that instrument before but now we have our own secret weapon.” Petty called holding up an odd purple looking instrument. 

Nayuta looked at Julio confused “ Did you ever use the Anima Recorder when fighting them?” 

Julio shook his head “ I’ve only used it once or twice and that was back in the Grabad Factory remember?” 

Marlene nodded “ It’s how you managed to use your first Union attack.” 

Dotty looked rather angry at being talked over like this “ Regardless, you all had some magical help when battling while we didn’t, but now we have our own help.” 

Nayuta chuckled “ Do you know how to play that instrument?” 

Petty awkwardly coughed “ Um, well. That isn’t important” 

Gaufre sighed “ I don’t mean to be rude, but we do need to go finish our mission.” Gaufre pointed the way for the group to go, everyone followed him walking into more ruins along the path, Gaufre turning to say goodbye to the violet cats “ It was nice talking, you can take the path to town and meet us there to battle if you would like.” 

Nayuta chuckled “ Gaufre why would you invite them to battle later?” 

Gaufre shrugged “ They seemed like nice people.” 

“I heard that” Dotty yelled angrily, offended he was seen as anything other than a villain. 

Julio sighed “ You never did get to meet them did you?” Julio asked while the group reached an intersection in the ruins with five branching paths. “ They say their villains, but they don’t do all too well.” 

“HALT” A voice called, the group looked around before noticing a large yellow Raiden walking towards them it’s talons clicking against the stone of the ruins as it approached “ Envoy of Mao Mao I am the guardian of courage, to proceed you must prove yourself in a one on one test of strength.” 

Before anyone could react the Raiden sprinted forward aiming to fight Spork who had been silently following the group. Spork barely avoided the punch aimed for his face, Spork barely able to protect himself as the Raiden’s taloned foot kicked him across the opening right into a wall. Spork, quickly got back to his feet using his mute cutter attack to launch a few wind slashed at the Raiden before charging forward, the Raiden dodged all the mute cutter attack only to be caught of guard by Spork’s tail claw attack as Spork got his revenge and sent the Raiden backwards into a wall. Spork used his freeze attack freezing the Raiden to the wall before being drop kicked, ice shattering around it from the force of Spork’s kick.

As the kick landed the voice rang through the area again, “ Well done, please take the first key and proceed.” A large white light shone around the Raiden as it vanished leaving a gleaming yellow feather left behind. 

The group didn’t have time to react as a second voice rang around them while a red Raiden approached from the second opening in the crossroads. “ I am the guardian of love, to pass me you must bring me a token of love.” As it finished speaking a wall in the path seemingly vanished opening for the group to go through. 

“ Token of love?” Marlene asked “ How are we supposed to find something like that all the way out here?” 

Gaufre shrugged “I’m not sure, but Mama taught me that these tests will always have a solution for the envoy.” 

Nayuta shrugged “ I guess we’ll just have to find out once we go through here” 

The opening in the ruins led to a wooden bridge, and the smell of water. A large waterfall was cascading down next to the bride creating an almost relaxing mist as the group walked past it. The plants in this area were all different sized flowers lining the path but never going over the bridge itself. They walked to the other side of the bridge and made their way along a path lined against the edge of a cliff, below was a clear view of the jungle below. 

“Wow, this is an amazing view.” Marlene commented looking out over the large amount of trees that they could see from so up high 

“ Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to see something like this before.” Julio said happily looking out over the many tree’s below.

“I found it.” Gaufre called leaning over to pick something up off the ground.

“Are you sure? The path goes on for a bit longer that could just be a deco” Before Nayuta could finish her thought whatever Gaufre was holding vanished in a white light. 

“ I told you it was what we were looking for.” Gaufre chuckled turning around hurriedly leading the group back to the crossroads, Marlene and Julio making sure to take in as much of the view as they could 

Once back at the crossroads there was a glimmering red feather where the Raiden had once been and a small doll next to it. 

“A doll?” Marlene asked while Gaufre picked both up 

“Mama made it for me when I was sick as a child.” Gaufre held the doll close “ I loved it when I was little but one day it vanished, now I know why.”   
Gaufres happy sentiments were cut short by a third voice ringing through the area while a Blue Raiden approached the group. “I am the guardian of perseverance to pass me, you must leave your friends and proceed alone, stand alone and continue .” 

“Wait hold on, Gaufre isn’t going to leave us just like that.” Nayuta responded, the Raiden looked angered by this

“Then he will never meet Mao Mao.” The voice said angrily. 

“No,” Gaufre said, looking at the Raiden with his fist closed in anger. “ My friends are staying with me.” 

The Raiden took a step back, rather shocked “ Then you won’t be able to proceed” 

Gaufre chuckled “ I see what you're doing, and I’m not giving in. Mama taught me to stand up for myself. I’m going to make her proud and you aren’t stopping me or my friends from going through.” 

The Raiden chuckled “ I see you’ve seen through my trap, Big Mama raised you well.” The Raiden vanished leaving a feather behind and a wall behind the group raising up. 

“Wow Gaufre, I’ve never seen you act like that around anyone before.” Marlene commented, slightly scared having seen Gaufre become suddenly more bold. 

“ I guess having you all here does help me be stronger.” Gaufre responded, leading the group through the new opening, “ With you all around I don’t feel as scared or awkward.” 

Nayuta smiled “ Aww Gaufre that’s so nice of you.” But the group could tell this wasn’t entirely true, Gaufres hands were shaking and his pace was becoming slower and slower with each step, it looked like his small boost of confidence was starting to wear off. The group's focus on Gaufre’s increasing fear was stopped as they came to a large mess of vines blocking their path. 

“That’s not good,” Julio said, looking around for another path to no avail. Spork tried to cut through the vines but even the monsters strength couldn’t get through these vines 

Gaufre took a deep breath “ I’ve got this.” He pressed his head to the vines and began to sing, it sounded almost like a nursery rhyme as he sang the vines sprang to life, moving away from the path. 

“That was kinda cheesy for a spell but hey it helped us.” Nayuta chuckled looking down the now open path beyond the vines. 

The path was lined with several small round murals, pictures and writings were carved into these pieces most of them looked to be depicting the same bird that could be seen as a statue in the plaza.

Gaufre didn’t pay any attention to the statues however, he was focused on the large lake in front of the group. In the center of the lake was a large dome which was connected to the path by three bridges which connected to smaller islands present in the lake. The plant life in this area was far more lush, several different trees even growing up from the water of the lake, the dome was covered in several plants, flowers, trees, even a thick layer of grass was striped along the top of the dome. 

Gaufre took a very shaky deep breath before speaking “ There it is, Mao Mao’s home.” Gaufre hesitated before taking his first step onto the bridge to move towards the dome.   
Nayuta also took a deep breath “ This is it, We can get Moo’s horn and my mission will all be over.” She said following Gaufre down the path. 

Julio followed her looking around at the lake as he spoke “ Can’t believe our journey is almost over, everything feels like it’s been moving so fast.” Julio said, before noticing that Marlene wasn’t following the group. “ Hey Marlene is everything okay?”

Marlene nodded before jogging to catch up with the group “ Yeah I’m fine, just thought I heard something, but it must have just been a bird.” 

By the time Marlene had finished speaking the group was already at the first island on the lake, moving towards the second island with a much slower pace as Gaufre’s nerves were seemingly getting the best of him, and by the time they had reached the steps leading up to the dome Gaufre had some to a halt entirely. 

“ I don’t know if I can do this.” Gaufre muttered looking up at the dome. 

“Hey we haven’t come this far to just give up now.” Julio said standing next to Gaufre to comfort him “ We can do this, together we’re strong enough to take on anything that we face.” 

Nayta nodded “ We can do this Gaufre, nothings going to stop us now.” 

Marlene smiled placing a hand on Gaufre’s arm, “ We’re all here with you Gaufre, nothing can defeat us if we stick together.”


	24. Mao Mao's Wrath

The group walked together in front of the dome slowly climbing the steps that led to the entrance, at the top Baja’s jar stood, Baja floating above it awaiting their arrival. 

“ This is Mao Mao’s home. I wish you all the best of luck facing him.” Baja looked down at the group, “ You have all come very far since our first encounter in the Devil’s Forest. I trust that you’ve come far enough to face Mao Mao.” 

Nayuta leaned over and whispered to Julio “ Why does he always talk like he’s our teacher or something” 

Baja glanced over at Nayuta “ Hmm? Did you say something?” 

Nayuta shook her head “ Oh no I didn’t sorry about that.” 

Baja simply nodded and returned to his jar. Allowing the group to enter into Mao Mao’s dome. Inside several glowing flowers hung from the ceiling lighting the whole room in a soft glow almost like the sun was shining into the room itself. On the far end of the room sat a mess of golden red feathers curled into a ball, soft snoring could be heard for a moment, until a bird's head rose from the feathers. Mao Mao unfurled himself and stood at his full height looking down suspiciously at the group, the large bird was as tall as a building dwarfing the height of everyone around him, even Gaufre looked small compared to him. 

“M-Mao Mao, I am the envoy from C-conga Conga.” Gaufre stammered holding up the Bananas Lambert had gathered earlier. “ I have come with an offering for another year of prosperity in Conga Conga.” Gaufre placed the bananas on the ground before backing away. 

Mao Mao yawned as he picked them off of the ground, eating them in seconds. He looked pleased before noticing Julio, Marlene, and Nayuta. His expression turned from being sleepy to being completely enraged.

“Ah so you think by leaving food for me you could get the horn?” Mao Mao hissed, his feathers standing on edge. “ Intruders will be eliminated just like I used to do when the horn was first placed here.” 

“Whoa hold we’re not here to misuse the horn.” Nayuta called trying to calm the situation. 

Mao Mao simply chuckled, stretching his wings. “ I’ll have fun getting back into the fighting scene, I bet I’m still strong as ever.” Mao Mao finished stretching and readied his wings which had become more similar to arms at this point “ Come then intruders I’ll wipe the floor with you.” 

Marlene looked shocked “ For a worshiped deity I never expected him to be so hostile.” She shook her head as Nayuta summoned their team to aid them “ Regardless I don’t think he’ll listen to us without a fight.” 

Nayuta and Julio nodded, Nayuta looked over at Mao Mao slightly worried, “ His anima levels are incredibly high, we need to be careful fighting him.”

“Please be careful I’ve heard legends of how strong Mao Mao is, If we aren’t careful he could literally wipe the floor with us.” Gaufre called as he backed away from the battle field. 

Spork didn’t take the time to listen to the warnings from the others as he launched himself forwards leaping into the air ready to strike Mao Mao with his tail claw. Mao Mao simply chuckled, grabbing Spork’s tail in mid air and throwing Sporky across the room. Mystery and Rocket ran to Spork’s sides as he slowly stood up. The three monsters looked up at Mao Mao now sharing the panic their trainers felt. 

“ Don’t let him get to you.” Julio called “ You guys can do this.” 

Mystery looked back at his trainer before nodding, Spork ran forward again Mystery readied an Ice boom and Rocket had disappeared from the battle field. Spork did the same attack leaping into the air to use his tail claw, Mao Mao had the same reaction, however this time Rocket appeared having been hidden in the palm of Spork’s tail claw. Rocket pulled a microphone out from his inside his stuffed body, he used his Sing attack and yelled into the microphone causing an incredibly loud blast of sound to hit Mao Mao creating enough force to catch the large bird off guard. Sporky spun in a tornado motion firing off several Air Slash attacks which hit Mao Mao with ease, the combo finishing when Mystery’s Ice Boom S sent three large icicles crashing into Mao Mao which exploded on impact. Spork grabbing Rocket and returning to Mystery’s side quickly. 

“That’s what I’m talking about, you guys did it.” Julio cheered happily, his happiness didn’t last long however as he realized Nayuta had begun to look even more worried. “Nayuta what’s wrong, they just did a ton of damage.” 

Nayuta shook her head “ If that’s so then why did his anima levels just rise even higher.” 

Everyone looked over at Mao Mao who had a scarlet red aura surrounding him as he laughed “ Man I haven’t had this much fun in hundreds of years.” 

“ He looks even stronger than before.” Marlene said as she took a step backwards out of pure shock.

Gaufre gasped “ It’s his scarlet aura.” Gaufre took a step forward, panic in his voice as he spoke “ He takes pain and uses it to make himself stronger in battle, We did damage but now he’ll use that to deal even more damage to us.” 

“That’s not good.” Marlene said, looking back at the battle just in time to see Spork narrowly avoid a punch from Mao Mao, the punch itself sending shockwaves forward from the force of it. 

Rocket and Mystery fired off several ranged attacks, which did their damage but only made Mao Mao’s attacks even stronger and his laughter louder. Rocket ran in to use his Sing attack, yelling as loud as he could to try and catch Mao Mao off guard. He was met with Mao Mao yelling even louder at him breaking through his attack and sending him flying backwards into a wall on the opposite side of the large dome. Mystery tried to use another Ice Boom S but was caught in the shockwave of one of Mao Mao’s super-charged punches and also flung backwards landing next to Rocket. Spork did a bit more damage slashing at Mao Mao as fast as he could before the bird stomped on the ground causing the whole dome to shake and Spork lost his footing and triped, before being kicked across the dome to join his other two friends. 

“ Puny monsters, I’m far too strong for them? Mao Mao jeered 

“They are not puny.” Marlene yelled as she ran to her monsters aid, all three of them stood up clearly ready to continue fighting, but it was apparent one more hit at even a fraction of Mao Mao’s current power could take all three of them down at once. 

It took Marlene a moment to realize, but Julio had begun playing his accordion, like he had done back in Grabad. The monsters made their way back to the battlefield looking more focused than before. Julio had his eyes closed as he played the accordion, only focused playing louder than Mao Mao could speak. Energy surrounded the three monsters as they stood together. 

Nayuta looked at the energy gathering around them slightly astonished “ Their anima is getting stronger, this union attack is nothing like the one they used back in Grabad.” She paused looking at Julio in shock “ This is much much more.” 

Mao Mao laughed “ I see, using the Anima Recorder to use a super strong attack are we? Well I can also use a Union attack, just by using my anima.” Mao Mao’s aura seemed to glow as he readied himself for an attack. 

Julio’s closed eyes seemed to turn into a glare as the energy around Rocket, Spork, and Mystery took on a red, blue, and yellow tone respectively. The three monsters seemed to float into the air before firing themselves at Mao Mao who launched himself forward in response. The four collided with so much force that the dome shook and the water in the lake outside could be heard crashing against the shore with immense force. Rocket, Spork and Mystery flew backwards the aura surrounding them still as they landed before it vanished and they all collapsed exhausted. Mao Mao was sent sliding into the wall behind him, a large crack spreading up it towards the ceiling of to room. 

Julio stopped playing his instrument as he ran to his monsters aid, making sure they were all okay, thankfully none of them had sustained any large injuries. 

Mao Mao chuckled “ Impressive, that’s the only time I’ve ever been beaten in battle. I expected nothing less from the four destined to come to me to protect the horn.” 

Nayuta spun to face Mao Mao, her expression a mix of anger and confusion “ You knew why we are here??” 

Mao Mao chuckled “ Of course I do, I’ve known for thousands of years.” 

Gaufre stepped next to Nayuta, also confused “ Then why fight us?”

Mao Mao shrugged “ It gets boring sitting in this dome all alone, I needed something to do.” 

Marlene looked incredibly angry as she looked up at Mao Mao “ You were bored??” She yelled “ Our monsters could have been seriously hurt because you were bored??” 

Mao Mao chuckled “ Calm down, you were going to get the horn either way.” As he said this a pedestal rose from the ground in front of them, the horn being safely contained inside. Nayuta gave a sigh of relief reaching to grab it, but before she could reach it.

“ HAHAHA YOU FOOLS.” A voice rang through the dome as the horn was stolen from in front of them. Everyone looked up to see Dotty being held up in the air by his Gitan, as he held the horn. “ I now have the ultimate weapon in my hands because you were foolish enough to underestimate me.” He motioned forward as his Gitan rocketed towards the exit, avoiding everyone’s attempts to stop him. 

Mao Mao attempted to stand up, but fell back to the ground, one of his legs too injured to walk. “ Please, I beg you to stop that boy. Nothing good can come from anyone but you having that horn.” 

Nayuta returned all of their monsters to the tent, before the group stood and ran after Dotty, hoping they could retrieve the horn before it was too late.


	25. Violet Cats in the Jungle

Dotty and Petty stood in a part of the abandoned ruins in the middle of Mao Mao’s jungle. Dotty holding the horn in his hands proudly as Petty held their Gitan in her arms. 

“ We did it Dotty! With this we can become stronger than anyone.” Petty said looking at the horn happily “ It was great thinking to follow villain rule #552: Strike while their guard is down.” 

Dotty chuckled “ Of course, what else did you expect from the great Dotty.” Dotty posed with the horn proudly, “ With this we’ll become great villains Petty, and the violet cats will be the greatest villain duo ever.” 

Petty smiled “ We’ll go down in history together Dotty.” 

Their moment was cut short as the sound of a twig breaking could be heard from behind them. They turned to see Woo and a large man standing behind them, the man wore long red robes his hood lowered to show his two monster-like ears, behind him a large tail brushed against the stone floor of the ruins. 

He smiled before speaking to the two “ I believe you have something that we require.” He said, holding out his hand calmly. “I must thank you for going to all this trouble to gather the horn for us.” 

Dotty scoffed “ Um, no we got this horn for ourselves, we aren’t just going to give it to you.” Dotty and Petty took a step away from the man while Woo snickered at the two of them. 

“Oh the humans think they have a choice.” Woo chuckled, looking up at the two. 

The man nodded “ I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but if I must use force I will.” He raised his hand and a large amount of wind collided with Dotty sending him flying back dropping the horn on the ground where Woo picked it up in a hurry. Petty turned to aid Dotty quickly. 

“Dotty are you okay?” Petty said, helping Dotty back to his feet. 

Dotty staggered for a moment clearly not feeling the best after the man’s attack. “I’ll be fine once we get that horn back, I’m not going to let all of our work go to wa-” Dotty wasn’t able to finish his sentence before he was blasted backwards again this time colliding with a wall, 

The man sighed as Dotty lifted his head off of the ground, “ You humans are much more resilient than I remember, regardless if you insist to keep fighting I’ll continue to fight back.” 

“STOP” Petty yelled, standing in front of Dotty. “ Take the stupid horn I don’t care, I’m not going to let you hurt him any more.” Petty’s Gitan floated in front of her it’s wings spread wide ready to take an attack with her if needed. 

The man took a step back and pressed his hand over his face, almost in shock. Woo looked up at him in confusion “ Sir what’s wrong.” 

“She reminds me of..” The Man shook his head “ It doesn’t matter, I’m not going to hurt her is she doesn’t stand in our way” 

Petty glared at the man “ Just leave or else I will get in your way.” 

The man shook his head “ You’re brave but don’t let my kindness get to your head, if you ever dare to stand against me ever again I won’t be so kind.” He snapped his fingers, a dark cloud engulfing him and Woo as they took Moo’s Horn. 

Petty quickly turned to look at Dotty who had passed out, the injury from slamming into the wall too much for him. She shook him for a moment before she looked around fear and desperation in her voice as she screamed for help in the empty jungle, knowing her chances of being heard were low, but she still screamed for help as she did her best to help Dotty. Tears streamed down her face as she broke down into sobs knowing her Gitan didn’t have enough strength to carry Dotty all the way back to Conga Conga for help.


	26. A Failed Task

Nayuta sat in the corner of the meeting room of the tent, curled into a ball. Tears slowly streaming down her face, Dotty was recovering elsewhere in the tent while Petty waited for him in the meeting room. It was near midnight Nayuta could hear crickets from outside the tent chirping while she softly cried to herself. Everyone else that was part of the troupe was presumably asleep, exhausted from the long day. Nayuta had been upset since Petty had told the troupe what happened, how the horn had been taken by a man from Warp, this meant that Nayuta’s whole mission up to this point was for nothing and that she had failed her whole village. 

Nayuta leaned over grabbing a backpack that she had packed an hour ago with all of the items important to her. She placed a letter on Albert’s table before turning to leave the room, doing her best to keep quiet even while crying. She moved through the main hall of the tent, walking through the halls one last time before she ran away to return to Tochika. The thought of leaving everyone behind hurt her but she knew it’s what she had to do. 

Nayuta was going to miss the time she would spend keeping Tico company with Gaufre when everyone else was busy, she was going to miss Daisy and Albert teaching her new things that she would never have learned back in Tochika, Lambert’s stories from when he used to work for the king, She just felt like Marlene and her had become real friends and she knew that connection could be lost forever, and the one that hurt her the most was the thought of leaving Julio behind. He was like a brother to her, they had been through so much and she knew it was going to hurt him as much as it was hurting her at that moment. 

Nayuta couldn’t stop thinking about how much she was going to miss all of these things, and it was these thoughts that made it hardest for her to take that first step through the tents entrance, her eyes welled with even more tears as she took that first step past the entrance to the tent her foot creaking against the floor under her as the cold nights air made the tears in her eyes sting. She took one final deep breath knowing this was it, she had to say goodbye to the Orcoro circus and it’s troupe to do what she was born and raised to do. She kept telling herself this, trying to distance herself from the thoughts hurting her, telling herself that she knew this was coming and she was supposed to leave either way. She shouldn’t have gotten attached, she shouldn’t have let herself get so close when it was going to hurt her in the end like this, she should have…..

“Nayu?” Tico’s sleepy voice called from the tent. “Nayu where are you going?” 

Nayuta froze, her mind was racing with all possible things to say, but Tico was the first to speak up as he walked over to her. 

“Big sis?” Tico asked, slowly walking towards Nayuta as he noticed the backpack she was carrying, “ Are you leaving?” His voice shook as he asked this. 

Nayuta turned to face Tico after wiping the tears from her face to hide how heavily she had been crying “ I have to go Tico, It’s important.” 

Tico looked up at her not fully grasping what she meant “ Well I’ll go with you then, where are we going? Big Mama took me on a tour, I met this boy named Alec, he was really nice. He gave me a map from his dad’s store, I’ll be your guide.” Tico proudly dug through his pockets to show Nayuta the map. 

Nayuta chuckled, knowing if she didn’t smile she’d be crying “ No, Tico where I’m going I have to go alone.” 

“You have to go alone?” Tico asked slowly putting away his map “ But you’ve never had to go along before, if you’re worried I’ll get hurt I promise I’ll be fine, I’ll listen to anything you tell me and be careful.” 

Nayuta knelt down in front of Tico so she could be at eye level with him. “ I know you would Tico, but…..” She paused not sure how to phrase this so that Tico would understand. “Tico I….. I’m not going to come back to the tent once I leave.” 

The second Nayuta said that she knew she should have phrased with more care as she saw tears form in Tico’s eyes while he fully took in what she had told him “ Y-you’re leaving?” Tico asked, tears slowly falling from his eyes

“I’m sorry Tico, I wish I could bring everyone along with me but..” Nayuta was cut off by another voice. 

“ What about being stronger together?” Gaufre’s voice called from the entrance to the tent. “ You told me that we shouldn’t leave anyone behind right Nayuta?”

Nayuta looked off to the side avoiding eye contact with gaufre or Tico, “ Well this is different, I can’t bring anyone with me it's not allowed” 

Gaufre took a step over to her folding his arms “ Nayuta when have rules like that stopped you?”

Nayuta sighed “ But who knows how much trouble you all may get in if you share blame for what happened back in my hometown.” 

“We won’t let you get in trouble Nayu.” Tico said, as he hugged Nayuta’s leg “We’re a family and we aren’t letting anyone get left behind.” 

Nayuta knelt over and hugged Tico, doing her best not to cry anymore than she already had “ This is why I tried to leave without you all knowing, I knew you’d convince me to stay.” 

Tico smiled “ Does this mean you’ll let us come with?”

Nayuta chuckled “ I don’t think I have a choice, you’ll all come with me either way.”


	27. Next Step Forward

The troupe had gathered in the meeting room the following morning, Dotty and Petty had left the tent an hour ago after Dotty insisted he was fine. Nayuta stood in the center of the room so she could get everyone’s attention as she spoke. 

“ As you all know the people of Warp now have Moo’s horn.” Nayuta said, her voice low, trying not to sound upset “ This means I’ve failed my mission, and that I have to go home to report this to my village head.” Nayuta sounded almost afraid as she said this 

Gaufre stood up slowly to join her in speaking “ We’re going with her to Tochika.” Tico stood up alongside Gaufre nodding and folding his arms trying his best to look mature.

Nayuta looked at the two and gave a small smile before continuing “ I’m not sure if you all will be allowed to follow me home, but I don’t want to leave you all behind.” She took a deep breath “ I tried to leave alone last night, but Tico and Gaufre convinced me that it’s best to do this together like we always have.” 

Marlene smiled “We’ve been through so much together already, We’re not leaving you behind Nauta.” Marlene stood up and opened her arms to hug Nayuta who had begun crying.

Julio stood up also to comfort Nayuta “We’re not going anywhere.” Julio said as he joined the group hug. The rest of the troupe followed suit joining the hug while all giving words of comfort to Nayuta to make sure she knew that they were there for her. 

After a few minutes the group separated, Albert was the first to speak up “ So Nayuta we’re off to Tochika, just tell us where to go and we’ll set off right away.” 

Nayuta shook her head nervously, “ I’m not sure where to go is the thing. Tochika is hidden so well from the outside world that it may take weeks or months to find it even with my magic to guide us.” 

A loud chuckle rang from the doorway to the room as Big Mamma stepped inside. “ You didn’t think you were leaving without saying goodbye did you?” Big Mama asked as she knelt down to hug Tico who had run over to her. “ Now what’s this about Tochika I heard?” 

“We’re leaving to try and find Tochika, I need to report to my village head.” Nayuta said, sounding rather glum. 

Big Mama scoffed “ From the tone of your voice I assume Kazuma is still in charge.” Big Mama hoisted Tico onto her shoulder before she stood up, Tico looked very happy to be sitting on her shoulder so high up off the ground.

Nayuta looked slightly confused “ You know my village head? How?” Nayuta asked, her shock very apparent. 

Big Mama chuckled “ I met him when I first began to lead Conga Conga, it’s customary for the village heads of Conga Conga and Tochika to be in contact.” Big Mama reached into a pocket and pulled out a small picture “ This growth of vines along the shore north of Conga Conga is actually a tunnel that connects our two towns.” Nayuta looked down at the picture almost immediately recognizing small markings that resembled Tochikan writing on the walls around the cave entrance. 

Daisy looked up at Big Mama slightly confused “ How did you know we’d need that?” Daisy chuckled and folded her arms “ Do you have some sort of future seeing magic too??” 

Big Mama chuckled “ Of course I don’t, but I assumed the girl would need it so she could return the horn to Tochika safely.” Big Mama said, the whole room becoming quiet as she did. “ Is something wrong?” 

“Um, Mama we…” Gaufre started getting interrupted by another person busting through the entrance to the meeting room. 

“ We lost the horn.” Dotty announced, Petty nodding along beside him. “ We stole it from them before having it stolen from us” 

“We failed to uphold Villain rule # 4457: keep the treasure for yourself.” Petty stated her voice sounded almost sad because they failed to uphold the rule. “ We didn’t know how important the horn was until recently.” 

Big Mama looked down at the two, her anger could be felt from across the room even without anyone able to read her expression through her mask “ You two lost an ancient relic that our people have been protecting for centuries? How dare you!” Big Mama yelled down at the two, Dotty and Petty cowering slightly as she did so.

Marlene stepped in between the two trying to calm the situation down, “ Which is why we’re going to Tochika, we’ll find a way to get the horn back there I’m sure of it.” 

Big Mama looked down at Marlene and sighed “ You better hope Kazuma has a solution for this, otherwise we may all be in grave danger.” 

Daisy also stepped in doing her best to not look very afraid seeing Big Mama this angry, “We’ll do our best Ma’am, we’ve gotten through so much already and we’re not giving up now.” 

Big Mama nodded “ I trust your troupe, but you better hope that there is something you can do.” As Big Mama finished her sentence a girl ran into the room calling Big Mama’s name 

“Big Mama something’s happened, we’ve found the jungle ruins have been damaged and Mao Mao’s feathers have been spotted, something must have happened to him.” The girl called, her voice full of fear. Nayuta and Julio exchanged worried glances fearing their battle with him is what caused this.

Big Mama left the tent Gaufre following her, the troupe was left alone for a half hour, as they all worriedly packed their things to prepare for Tochika before Gaufre and Big Mama returned. 

“Is everything okay? What’s going on?” Natyuta asked as Big Mama re-entered the tent. 

“Dark anima” Big Mama answered looking down as a small leaf she had picked up, it had almost completely turned mangled, hardly looking real. “ Those people from Warp must have used Moo’s horn in the jungle to test its power,” 

Nayuta looked terrified “ The horn caused this much damage just from a test?” She looked at the leaf in horror as it crumbled before everyone’s eyes. 

Big Mama looked at the troupe “ You all must leave for Tochika immediately, I will use my magic to stop the dark anima here, but you cannot let that horn be used again.” 

Lambert slowly stepped into the room, looking like he was in even worse condition “ We’ll get that ho-” Lambert paused coughing into his sleeve for a moment “ We’ll get that horn and save everyone, we have nothing to fear while the huntsman of Marche is here.” 

Marlene shook her head as she took Lambert's arm to give him extra support. “ Lambert I can’t let you do that, you’re hardly in a condition to travel as is.” 

Lambert chuckled, his chuckle quickly turned into a cough however “ But Princess, I must follow the queen's orders and attend to you.” Lambert said doing his best to sound determined to uphold his duties. 

Marlene sighed “ If that’s the case then as ex-princess of Marche I demand you stay here in Conga Conga until you’re fully healed.” Marlene stated, sounding very uncomfortable to give a demand as a princess. 

Lambert looked up at Marlene and sighed “As you wish princess.” Lambert coughed for a moment before he was lifted off the ground by Big Mama who didn’t want him to walk in his condition. 

Big Mama looked at Marlene and nodded “ We’ll make sure he’s okay, I promise.” Big Mama said before turning to Nayuta “ You have the faith of everyone in Conga Conga, I wish you the best for the rest of your journey.” Big Mama left the tent, Gaufre following so both could say their goodbyes while Big Mama got Lambert to a place that he could rest. 

The troupe finished packing and they all stood in the caravan together getting ready to depart to Tochika when they heard a pair of footsteps slowly enter the meeting room, it was Dotty and Petty both looking like they had something very urgent to say. 

“Dotty? Petty?” Julio asked in a confused tone “ What are you two doing here.” 

Dotty looked at Petty and took a deep breath before turning to the troupe. “ I want to go with you to Tochika, and help get the horn back”


	28. Off to Tochika

The troupe looked at Dotty with complete shock on their faces, no one was sure how to respond to what he had just told them until Marlene spoke up. 

“ Did you just say you want to join us?” Marlene asked, very confused, “ You’ve been trying to get in our way ever since Colno and now you’re pulling a full 180?”

Dotty nodded “ The great Baron Dotty knows when to admit defeat.” Dotty said, folding his arms. 

“ Do you really?” Nayuta asked. “ You didn’t admit defeat the first 4 times.” 

Dotty scoffed “ That’s not what I meant.” Dotty sighed looking over at Petty who was nodding encouragingly at him “ I mean I know when I need to write a wrong. I may be a villain, but I don’t want something this bad to happen.” 

Albert stood up from his seat across the room, a small smile on his face “ Well we do need all the help we can get.” Albert said, taking a step away from his chair. 

Marlene looked at Albert confused, “ But Albert, these guys tried to steal money from everyone in Colno, can we really trust them?” Marlene asked, turning to look at Albert.

Albert sighed, placing his hand under his chin, “ That is true,” Albert paused weighing his options for a moment “ But right now these two are the lesser of two evils.” Petty and Dotty scoffed at that remark.

Daisy stood up, moving over to Marlene as she spoke “ They may not be good people, but that woman from Warp is even worse, and who are we to deny them a chance to redeem themselves.” Daisy said, doing her best to show support for Albert’s decision. 

Nayuta nodded “ We don’t know what the people of Warp are capable of now that they have the horn. We need as much help as we can get.” Nayuta looked over at Dotty and Petty.

“We even have our own monster that can help.” Petty stated, holding up their Gitan, it was green with a pumpkin hiding its face, it rose it’s arms proudly as Petty held it up, it reminded everyone of how Dotty usually acted. 

“Mr. Bombastic will make a great addition to your team if you let us help you.” Dotty boasted placing his hands on his hips proudly as he said that.

Petty sighed “ His name is Mr. B. Mr. Bombastic just doesn’t fit him Dotty.” Petty argued hugging Mr. B

Dotty scoffed “ Mr. Bombastic is his name and to call him anything else would be disrespectful.” Dotty retorted, folding his arms angrily. 

Julio chuckled “ Maybe right now isn’t the best time to argue about that.” Julio interrupted, hoping they could refocus on the actual problem they were facing. 

Lambert nodded “ We should let them join us, as we say in Marche..” Lambert paused, unable to stifle a cough. “ Our enemy's enemy is our friend.” 

Gaufre looked over at Lambert worried “ Lambert please take it easy and get some rest, we don’t want your condition getting worse.” Gaufre said, sitting down next to Lambert and placing a hand on his back.

Lambert shook his head. “ Nonsense, I’m the iron lung of Marche, a small fever won’t keep me down.” Lambert chuckled, his chuckle quickly turned into a coughing fit 

Marlene quickly walked over to Lambert to make sure he was okay. While Marlene and Gaufre comforted Lambert making sure his condition wasn’t worsening, Albert was taking time to fully consider if he should let the Violet cats join them or not. Petty and Dotty awkwardly stood in the room not sure what to do or say while they waited for a response. 

“ Albert we should let them join us.” Julio said standing from his chair. “The Orcoro circus never turns down someone who wants to help right? We’ve let Daisy and Lambert join us without a second thought so why should they be any different.” 

Albert smiled “ I see where you're going with this Julio, and I agree.” Albert said, placing a hand on Julio’s shoulder before looking up at Dotty and Petty. “ I’ve made my decision and I’d be happy to let both of you join us.”  
Dotty and Petty both looked relieved to hear this, happily thanking Albert for letting them join the troupe. Marlene sighed, but she showed her support for Albert’s decision regardless as she welcomed the two to the team as well. Tico happily ran over to hug the two, exclaiming how excited he was to have his family grow even more. Nayuta held Mr. B for a moment, she smiled seeing just how happy the monster was. 

After this decision the troupe began packing the tent and collecting the belongings of Dotty and Petty over the course of a day and a half. Dotty and Petty did their best to adjust to being part of the group and while it took them some time to get over the idea that the two groups weren’t rivals anymore, by the time that the troupe was ready to leave Dotty and Julio had become friends. 

“ I wish you all the best of luck on your journey.” Big Mamma said as she gave a goodbye hug to Tico. “ I have faith that you can stop whatever it is that the people of Warp plan to do.” 

Lambert smiled “ You can count on us.” Lambert said from his seat on a nearby tree trunk.

Marlene shook her head “ Lambert I’m sorry but I can’t let you come with us.” She said, sounding very upset as she did. “ Your condition is getting worse and I don’t want you to go anywhere when you can rest here.”

“ I have to disagree, princess, it is my duty to-” Lambert was cut of by Marlene.

“ Then as your princess I order you to stay here until you are well enough to travel again.” Marlene retorted before looking up at Big Mama who was nodding in agreement “ Please make sure he doesn’t get himself injured” 

Big Mama nodded “ I won’t let anything happen to him, you have my word.” 

Marlene nodded before moving over to hug Lambert tears in her eyes “ I’m going to miss you uncle, I promise I’ll come back to see you once all of this is over.” 

Lambert smiled as he returned the hug. “ I know you will princess.” He paused doing his best not to cough “ And I know you can stop those people, they don’t call you the hope of marche for nothing.” 

Marlene chuckled through the tears in her eyes as she pulled away from the hug. “ Uncle you know no one calls me that.” 

Lambert held his smile as he looked up at her, using a small handkerchief to wipe away the tears that were forming in his eyes “ I do.” 

Marlene and Lambert hugged again, both tearfully saying their final goodbyes before the troupe left. While this was going on Dotty and Petty stepped aside, Dotty looking worried while Petty looked excited. 

“Hey Petty there’s something I need to tell you.” Dotty said, his tone very low as he did.

“You know you can tell me anything Dotty, so what’s up?” Petty asked.

Dotty took a deep breath before speaking. “ I want you to stay here.”

Petty looked almost hurt as Dotty said this. “ What do you mean? We’re the Violet Cats we can’t split up just like this” Petty argued “ I can’t stay behind now.” 

Dotty shook his head “ Petty I don’t want you getting hurt. After what happened to me who knows what those people might do.” Dotty spoke quietly, his usual proud demeanor completely gone 

“Well what about you I don’t want you getting hurt either Dotty.” Petty retorted “ Especially after what they did to you back in the jungle.” 

Dotty shook his head. “ Petty do you remember the rules we follow?” Dotty asked.

Petty tilted her head confused “ Yes? But I don’t see what that has to do with what’s going on right now.” 

Dotty sighed “ Well I have a new one for you.” He took a deep breath before following up with that “ Hero Rule #7 protect those close to you.” 

Petty looked completely caught off guard hearing this, her confusion slowly turning into a smile as she fully understood what he was saying “ You’re really changing or the better this time aren’t you.” 

Dotty smiled and nodded “ Being the hero seems like much more fun anyway.” 

Petty chuckled before she pulled Dotty into a hug, tears slowly falling from her eyes “ You better come back for me, or so help me I’ll go find you myself.” Petty chuckled trying to keep herself from fully bursting into tears. 

Dotty returned the hug chuckling “ You couldn’t keep me from coming back Lady Petty.” Dotty whispered, doing his best to hold back tears himself

“ You take good care of Mr. B for me.” Petty said “ And don’t correct me on the name, it’ll ruin the moment.” 

Dotty chuckled “ I’ll let you get away with it just this once.” 

The two hugged for a bit longer, parting once Albert announced that it was time to depart for Tochika, Dotty told the troupe that Petty wouldn’t be joining them on this journey after all. The troupe collectively gathered to say their goodbyes to Petty and promise her they wouldn’t let anything happen to Dotty while they were on their journey 

“Hey we’ll take good care of him Petty, you won’t have to worry about anything.” Daisy said, placing her hand on Petty’s shoulder. 

Petty nodded wiping away a few tears, “ I know you will, but that won’t stop me from missing him.” Petty gave a half hearted chuckle. 

Daisy paused for a moment looking through her pockets before she pulled out the pendant that Maroon had given her. “ A man gave this to us after we delivered a letter from his husband to him. In a way it shows that the distance won’t keep you two down.” Daisy placed the pendant into Petty’s hands. “ When you miss him, look at this and remember that the distance won’t keep you apart.”

Petty smiled “ Thank you Daisy, I’ll make sure to do that.” Petty said looking down as the pendant with a small smile on her face “ You know the color of the gem reminds me of Dotty.” 

Daisy smiled “ Well that’ll help it make you feel better even faster.” 

While Daisy and Petty were talking, Gaufre made his way over to Big Mamma to say goodbye to his mother before he left with the troupe. 

“ I’m sorry I couldn’t protect the horn Big Mama.” Gaufre muttered his head down as he did so. “ I wanted to prove to you that I could be a great envoy but I failed.”

Big Mama pulled Gaufre into a large hug, “ You’re wrong Gaufre, you didn’t fail.” Big Mama said her voice making it sound almost like she had started crying “ You’ve become the best envoy, no other envoy has been able to best Mao Mao like you did. You have no idea how proud I am of you.” 

Gaufre couldn’t manage a response, he had begun to cry the second he heard Big Mama say she was proud of him. He hugged her back both standing there doing their best not to sob as they did so.

“ Now go save the world my son.” Big Mama said, smiling under her mask “ And make sure to tell the rest of your circus family that I’m happy to have them as part of my family too.” 

Gaufre nodded before returning the group as they boarded the caravan. Everyone turned to wave goodbye to Big Mama, Lambert, and Petty who were all tearfully watching as their loved ones departed on this journey. Everyone doing their best not to let the feeling of leaving the three behind in Conga Conga get the better of them. Soon enough the three faded into the distance as they made their way into the tunnel leading to Tochika. The weight of saving the world on their shoulders as they continued on with their journey. No one was sure what might happen once they reached Tochika, but even so they knew nothing could stop them now.


	29. Meeting the Chief of Tochika

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written in a hurry so sorry if it's not up to the same quality as my other chapters.

The troupe made their way down the tunnel leading to Tochika. Tico and Nayuta had been staring out the back of the caravan looking at this walls of the cave as they passed through it, several glowing crystals lined their path along with many overgrown plants showing that no one had gone through this tunnel for many years. The two had been staring down the tunnel for around an hour now, Tico absentmindedly talking while Nayuta seemed to be preparing herself for what might face her once she returns home. Behind them Dotty and Daisy were talking, getting to know eachother better. 

“ So Dotty why do you have that thing over the left side of your face?” Daisy asked pointing to the large grey piece of fabric that was tied around his head with a strand hanging over his face.

Dotty chuckled “ Well it’s part of the uniform for us Violet cats. Petty used to wear one of these too before she lost it.” Dotty smiled, happy to talk about his team at any opportunity. 

“ Doesn’t it get annoying though? Not being able to see out of that eye?” Daisy asked curiously “ I get annoyed having goggles on my face when I work with machines I can’t imagine how annoying that must get when you can’t see” 

Dotty laughed for a moment, “ Doesn’t bother me too much, I can’t see out of that eye anyway.” Dotty said moving the fabric away from his face to show his other eye, a long scar visible along his face 

“Wait Dotty you’re partially blind?” Daisy asked, rather shocked not expecting that to be something she learned about him.

Dotty nodded “ My left eye is just a glass eye,” Dotty said awkwardly chuckling “ I lost my real eye during a training accident years ago.” 

Daisy placed a hand over her mouth in shock, “ Oh Dotty that must have been horrible I’m so sorry.” 

Dotty smiled proudly “ All of the best villains have battle scars, this just means I’m one step closer to being a great villain.” Dotty announced doing a pose he would usually take when talking about how much of a villain he was. 

Daisy chuckled “ You can give anything into a positive light can’t you” Daisy said, doing her best to point out that usually villains didn’t make everything so positive. 

Before Dotty could respond, Marlene called from the front of the caravan telling everyone that they had arrived at Tochika. The four that were in the back of the caravan ran to the front with everyone else to see the large almost ruin like structure that they were pulling up to, it was made of a old grey stone as it hung over the edge of a cliff with a large clear waterfall pouring down from the roof of it onto the beach below. The water from the waterfall was moving into a large lake with water a pure blue color. 

“Is this really Tochika?” Julio asked, as the caravan pulled to a stop on the large structure “ Where are all of the people? And where’s the town itself?”

Nayuta slowly hesitantly left the caravan following Julio. “ There's a hidden door in the wall over there.” Nayuta said pointing towards the wall. “ It’s odd that no one is out here, usually the lake and beach are full of people.” 

Marlene shrugged “ Maybe everyone is too busy?” Marlene said trying to comfort Nayuta who was looking more and more worried by the second

Daisy nodded along “ Yeah I’m sure there’s something going on today that’s stopping people from coming down here, nothing to worry about.” Daisy put her hand on Nayuta’s shoulder trying to keep her friend calm. 

Nayuta shook her head “ No, there’s no way everyone is busy something must have happe-” Nayuta was cut off by a girl stepping away from the hidden door in the wall, She was dressed in clothes similar to Nayuta except for a large cloak over her shoulders and blue hair tied into a bun.   
“Nayuta, you’re home.” She hesitantly stepped towards Nayuta, a worried look spread across the girls face “ Please come with me, the high priest wants to see you.” 

Any glimpse of hope that Nayuta had been showing vanished in an instant. “ O-of course. Thank you Sizuka we’ll be with you soon.” 

Sizuka bowed before sprinting off back through the door, the troupe slowly following her, Moving through the door into a large clearing in the inside of the mountain that surrounded the lake, a large waterway ran along the ground next to the large sloping platform leading up to the actual town, Several houses lined the cliff surrounded by large flowers and plants. As they looked around the troupe noticed that there were no stairs in the whole town; everything was accessible through the sloped platforms. 

Nayuta looked terrified as they walked up into the city, she hugged her stomach as she walked with the group. Julio stayed by her side doing his best to keep her calm as they made their way towards the top of the town, nearing an ornate door that led into another part of the mountain. 

“I-it’s through here” Nayuta stammered as Julio opened the door. 

Beyond the door was another large sloped platform lined with busts of several people and large hyacinths which were blowing in the breeze calmly, the calm atmosphere only strengthened by the sound of water running through the waterways around the town. At the top of this slope was a very large shrine with two guards protecting it. 

The guards nodded at the troup stepping to the side allowing the group into the shine where they were met by a woman with long brown hair tied into several long loops, dressed in a long robe decorated with several butterfly designs. Next to her was the chief of Tochika dressed in a blue robe with a red vest and blue pants under the robe, his hair tied into a bun with a headpiece holding his hair into place. He looked angrily down at the troupe, his glare enough to put even Albert on edge. 

“I see you’ve come back Nayuta.” The man said angrily. “ I expect you know what punishment must face you now.” 

Nayuta nodded “ Yes sir” She looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment. 

“Kazuma please, she’s just a child.” The woman next to him said trying to calm him down. 

“Silence Izanami, I know she’s your daughter but you cannot excuse her failure when it’s something this dangerous.” Kazuma said angrily, Izanami stepping away from him bowing trying not to anger him further. “ Nayuta tell me the extent of your failure.” 

Nayuta glanced at the troupe in fear before speaking “ The people of Warp stole the horn from me in Conga Conga.” 

Kazume grit his teeth as he looked down at her “ We full well know you lost the horn, with how much dark anima has been staining our sanctuary recently, I mean what else have you failed at.” 

Nayuta choked back a sob not able to speak anymore, Julio stepped forward holding Nayuta’s hand showing he supported her. “ It wasn’t her failure it was mine, I lost Moo’s disk to these people.” 

Kazuma glared daggers at Julio “ Not only have you and your circus freaks distracted Nayuta, but you have also doomed the world.” Kazuma said stepping forward “ Leave our home, you have no right to sully these sacred lands with your disgraceful crimes.”   
Julio took another step forward “ Hold on, we may have failed once but we can stop them. Our troupe has beaten them before and we can do it again” Julio yelled standing his ground 

Kazuma almost growled as Julio stepped towards him, “ You insolent little.” Kazuma raised his hand almost back, handing Julio in anger, his hand stopped by Marlene who had almost ran to Julio’s aid. Izanami and Sizuka both gasped looks of pure shock spreading across their faces. 

“You lay a finger on him and you lose any chance you have at saving the world.” Marlene hissed, angrier than anyone had seen her before. Kazuma and Marlene glaring at each other before Kazuma pulled his hand away from her angrily. 

“ Fine if you’re so sure you can save anyone, go set up your disgusting tent while I figure out what to do with you outsiders.” Kazuma retorted, “ I will give you one chance, and if you fail you’ll be banished from my town for good.” 

Izanami sighed “ Thank you sir, I know they may seem horrid now, but my daughter will show you she can.” Izanami was cut off by Kazuma.

“ I am offering a chance to spare themselves to these outsiders Izanami.” Kazuma shouted “ Your daughter will be dealt with after I deal with these fools.”

Kazuma motioned for the guards who escorted the troupe away from the shrine, the troupe made their way down to the Caravan so they could set up the tent in silence, no one sure how to react after what just happened in the shrine. They weren’t sure how to react but they knew that whatever Kazuma challenged them to do, they were going to do their best to show him they could fix their mistakes even if it felt hopeless at the moment. Julio however was more focused on helping Nayuta, and making sure she was able to avoid her punishment as well .


End file.
